Awakening

Baptism in the River Jordan and Coming Upon the Other Side

August 21, 2022 by Raymond Phelan 7 Comments

The image of biblical Jesus presenting for baptism in the river Jordan, has left an indelible image in the minds of many people. While the river Jordan, in Hebrew, means to ‘flow down’ or ‘descend, the biblical story behind this iconic river is totally not about people walking into its shoreline water.

Establishing context:

In real time, the river Jordan rises on the slopes of Mount Hermon, on the border between Syria and Lebanon. Continuing it flow southward through the sea of Galilee, the Jordan finally enters into what is known as the Dead Sea or, Salt Lake. The Dead Sea, being the saltiest expanse of water on the planet, no marine life can survive in it, other than microbial. While the Dead Sea of course has many fine tourist-attracting features, to include renown healing potential dating back to biblical times, its mention here – due to it being the lowest surface on earth — is purely symbolical, the significance of which will become obvious further on.

So, against this locational /origin backdrop, what is the metaphysical significance behind this allegory: what message is biblical Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan’ meant to symbolize for you, me and everyone at practical level?

On the ritualistic level, church baptism is about pouring water over a baby’s head. But this pouring of water is ceremonial only, it does not in itself cleanse away anything except maybe wash the baby’s scalp. This ritual satisfies the parents, in that, their treasured newly baby is now a recognized member of that particular church – but, that, no actual purification has taken place. Church baptism is merely another means of ‘signing’ new souls into a particular denomination, which baptism – as pertaining in my own country — is prerequisite for enrollment of children into catholic religion-based schools.

So, beyond the literal ‘made-up’ story espoused by formal religions — of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist – let us look at the Bible’s esoteric understanding of baptism in the river Jordan.

Biblical river Jordan is symbolism for the flow of subconscious thought through the human mind and body. A downward current of materially contaminated consciousness governing our deeper mind and soul automatically from birth. Human perception of this muddy carnal ignorance is symbolized by the Jordan’s southward flow into the Dead Sea. The Jordan is symbolism of this born-into downward current of thought-life through our mind /body.

As reversing this carnal trend upwards into the spiritual /cosmic currents is paramount, anything that is an obstruction to this upwards flow, represents the river Jordan.

Water is symbolic of entering a new state of spiritual existence – crossing from one state into another or, the human soul becoming aquatinted in realms of higher spiritual standards, of realizing divine consciousness. Baptism thus represents a stirring of those inner faculties which are initially ‘stuck’ in life’s downward flow and its associated soul-blocking mind-sets and lifestyles: a means of rising above compulsive negative thought or wrong thinking.

So, Who or what is John the Baptist?

The name John means ‘graced by God’, with baptism essentially referring to initiation into the healing power of nature. Thus John the Baptist symbolizes an advanced standard of lower intellect, a principle of reversing carnal mind into which every human soul starts out in life, which lower standard, at some point in time, must be quickened – thus John the Baptist represents only the seeking of this upwards soul flow or, one not yet Truth realized.

Similar to how John the Baptist recognized Jesus in the Jordan, we too, post seeking and inner awakening, begin to intuit life’s spiritual dimension and its renewing qualities. Like the mustard seed, once our soul recognizes or identifies with inner Spirit, then Spirit nature begins expanding naturally, signalling commencement of the Jordan’s upwards flow away from the Dead Sea. Jesus said: “I go to prepare to prepare a place for you” John 14:3, meaning, Spirit silence establishing higher states of consciousness. Our new mind forming the spiritual ’place’ which Jesus (holy spirit) hath prepared through our silence meditations.

John the Baptist thus is symbolism of initial ‘intellectual’ seeking of divine nature. It marks those tentative mental steps — the forerunner dynamic — necessary for coming upon Christ within. A recognition of need in transitioning out of natural man’s addictive animalistic mind-sets unto pure spiritual /cosmic status. Intuition inform us that, freeing our soul from these subconscious reactive thought patterns requires some practical application on our part, beyond the initial road to Damascus ‘flash’. In other words, while the sun rises daily in the sky, it takes many hours before reaching its highest mid-day point.

This change-seeking dynamic represents the forerunner, the inherent basic instinct preceding transition unto the One who follows the forerunner – birth of holy spirit consciousness or, initiating the Jesus principle.

Delving through the outer Layers

As animalistic intellect begins upgrading unto resolute intellect, our spiritual nature becomes gradually cognizable, amplified, when you /me as forerunner, begin ‘seeing /hearing/recognizing’ Christ within.

As our awareness penetrates deeper into the layers of subconscious carnality, thus residual ‘suffering’ thoughts –the old way of seeing /hearing – begin surfacing into conscious mind for practical integration. Thus awareness entering into the deeper realms of mind brings about expansion of mind, making the once subconscious realm of mind conscious, thus enabling pure cosmic status inhabit the right side brain, our spiritual ‘promised land’.

But John the Baptist’s initial intellectual surge to change is not in itself spiritual, rather, aspirational and intuitive only. It marks innate curiosity to something greater, grander and Nobler. The possibility of realizing a higher standard of mental comfort for instance.

But Herod – the law of perpetual sin in mind /body– puts an end to our divine seeking by having John’s innate forerunner prompt executed: cutting off the positive thought flow in the head. Herod — lower ego — working under law, represents destruction of good, promotion of negativity, evil and suffering, thus, by nature, cannot acknowledge or relate to goodness, positivity or anything spiritually progressive in mind.
Acting as a subconscious blocking or, decaying dynamic, Herod law exists in every human mind and body from birth. Its sole purpose is execution of spiritual tendencies surfacing into mind. As such, the imperative message of Jesus’ upward Jordan flow, the I AM awareness within our consciousness, begins to resonate as life-saving wisdom within. Adhering to this forerunner prompt is how Herod within — the downwards force — becomes neutralized at personal level, but its destructive flow-law still continues. In other words, while Herod may have put an end to the forerunner John the Baptist level, the execution is not, and can never be, a demise of the eternal forerunner spark, for, this spark TOO works under law to succeed by triggering the holy spirit /Jesus spark within.

The Desert

Post John the Baptist’s execution, continuance of the forerunner’s seeking intention is maintained, symbolized by Jesus, on hearing of execution of John the Baptist, going into the desert, into the wilderness of the subconscious mind – ‘and he descended into hell’ – Apostles Creed. When integration of the residual dynamic maintaining the subconscious karmic pattern begins. When personal Herod law finally meets its match and becomes malleable to spiritual understanding, to higher states of cosmic awareness, as in: ‘Jesus rose again on the Third Day’ Apostles Creed, ‘third day’ meaning period of spiritual growth leading to state of unity consciousness.

In this same context, Moses, in the desert, was instructed – in-tuition — “Lift up thy Rod” Exodus 14:16– meaning raise divine standard of awareness through thy Rod, ‘Rod, being the spinal column, hence significance of kundalini rising upwards. More on kundalini shortly.

Similarly, Jesus said: “Unless a man be born again of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” John 3:3 (inner baptism unto spiritual awareness).

Biblical water represents cleansing or purification. Thus Jesus’ rising up in the Jordan post baptism symbolizes this inner baptism unto newness: new thought paradigms initiated by the holy spirit /Jesus. Thus, Jesus going into the desert represents inner means unto personal I AM awareness through kundalini awakening in the causal spine body, one’s means of confronting the subconscious undisciplined chaotic Herod mind.

As the holy spirit dynamic functions entirely from within the spine, thus subconscious cleansing is possible only through kundalini Shakti, the holy spirit, rising from base chakra to crown chakra in the brain. This is our God-given means of delving into the dark shadow side of the human soul, into the subconscious layers which control our early lives, which cleansing activity only be performed by kundalini /holy spirit.

Reclaiming the subconscious leads to expanded capacity of conscious mind, space for out true nature to be experienced, when mind is freed of conditioned dogma and political selfish ideology. Expansion of mind fulfills: ‘make straight in our desert a highway for the Lord to become known’. Thus, on the metaphysical level, thus, Jesus’ arrest in the garden of Gethsemane and later crucifixion, and John the Baptists’ beheading, can be interpreted as ‘a voice calling [from within], make straight in the desert a highway for our God’ Isaiah 40:30 – cleansing of deeply rooted soul conflicting conditioning.

Paul puts this journey into making sub-consciousness whole: “Baptism commits us to a constant struggle with sin, so that we might be slaves to sin no longer”. In other words, Herod, as subconscious law, is unending, causal of inner conflict and struggle. Always tempting us away from spiritual progress, but then, that’s the purpose of Herod law. Our daily awareness work is not leaving the mind unguarded for this thief-law to enter whenever it wishes. The importance of awareness to each present moment is vital, it’s key to unblocking the subconscious highway unto the Lord within.

So, it was the beheading, which led Jesus going into desert of the subconscious, the inner Spark which triggers the unstoppable flow of I AM awareness, but which coming upon awareness has to be practiced thereby establishing such AS daily consciousness.
Altering Constitution of the Brain

If I may digress for a few short paragraphs into quantum physics.

Quantum physics informs us that, creation — as we explore it deeper – consists of many structured layers of energy: layers upon layers of dynamism or worlds within worlds beyond the naked eye. Similarly, on sinking through all the mental layers of mind, of recorded evolution and associated conditioning, we come upon that most orderly, dynamic aspect of the brain – total brain functioning. In practical reality, this going deeper and deeper within takes the mind to the basis of all creativity intelligence, to area of total brain functioning. The imperative becomes obvious.

In the context of coming upon total brain function, transcendence is the means.

Transcendence meditation takes the mind beyond surface thought and all sensual activity bringing about increased EEG brain coherence or, total brain functioning.

With brain being the facilitator of consciousness, thus transcendence is the means of altering the constitution of the brain fundamentally — unto knowing higher states of consciousness. In other words, beyond the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states, transcendence brings the mind into the fourth state of consciousness, of pure awareness, when our every though, word and deed serves God’s creation purely and unconditionally.

Thus, transcendence takes the brain to the unified field of pure creation – the power behind all that is, was and will be — representing experiential ‘milk and honey’ of other side of Jordan.

But, vitally, when we speak of meditation, it’s important to differentiate difference between the practice of meditation and arriving AT meditation, arriving at the unified field– they are two different dynamics.

Arriving AT meditation — consequent of going deeper into subtler regions of mind – typically refers to the moment of transcendence, of mind coming upon pure consciousness, the realm of the unified field of natural law. We practice meditation therefore in order to arrive at transcendence: when human awareness transforms into the blissful state of pure consciousness or Samadhi, or, Atman, the field of Total Knowledge.

Because transcendental pure consciousness already exists, thus we don’t practice transcendence itself as such. Rather – through mantra vibration – we practice going from gross to subtle, from surface to inner depth, thus come upon transcendence naturally. Transcendence is how the subconscious aspect of mind is made whole, the realignment of left /right side brain. Regular practice purifies the physiology enabling the nervous system withstand direct Samadhi or Bliss, when the unified field of intelligence is perceived through a cosmically orientated intellect.

Back to Scripture

Similar to physics, esoteric dipping of head into the Jordan water symbolizes one’s mental repentance, surrendering to the inner cosmic unified field dynamic behind all the laws of nature thereby putting inner and outer –as above so below — in harmony with natural law. With deeper regions of the mind becoming enlivened in meditation it marks the reversal of thought flow nature, when all the laws of nature are now working in our favor. Inner baptism thus marks the beginning stages of altering the constitution of the brain: an ability of decoding higher states of consciousness into manageable practical proportions.

Scripture puts it: ‘man is first born natural then spiritual’. This is the symbolism behind John the Baptist wearing goatskin and camel hide, it’s indicative of the natural man /woman and the initial non-spiritual status. But that it’s through this natural man /non spiritual downwards Jordan flow that our soul awakens unto eternal Spirit nature. That, within this natural man dynamic lies the ever-seeking John the Baptist principle unto divinity – an inbuilt ‘reminder’ of initial spiritual stagnation.

Kundalini and Rebuilding the Temple

In the context of Samadhi being a latent state within, vibrational silence thus is the entry key. The practice takes awareness into ever-purifying layers of mind, thereby initiate one’s innate kundalini flow upwards thus building ‘the Temple not made of human hands’ Acts 7:48.
Kundalini’s entry into the body thus is similar to biblical Jesus entering the ‘natural man mental temple and demolishing the non-soul-serving inhabitants. When Jesus said he would knock this natural man temple down and rebuild it in three days, the ‘three days’ represent a ‘period of spiritual growth’, of consciousness expansion, purification, thus establishing the Temple of Truth consciousness. This miracle of temple rebuilding can only be carried out by awakening the universal life force or, kundalini Shakti or, holy spirit, (which Jesus promised he would send). The awakening which leads to unity with Shiva in the brain (crown chakra), the mystical marriage yielding the ‘milk and honey’ off the other side of the southerly downwards Jordan flow, to northerly flow and not east to west crossing.

Luke 3:3 puts it – ‘So John (post heightened awareness) went throughout the whole territory of the river Jordan, preaching’: “turn away from you sins and be baptized (into higher Temple nature) and God will forgive your sins”. Luke 3:3 of course is referring to ‘baptism of repentance, baptism of transcendence leading to remission or, integration, of sin — metaphysically meaning ‘re-training the mind /thoughts in new spiritual Temple paradigms.’

Baptismal pouring of water is symbolism for pouring of kundalini the holy spirit into consciousness, bringing about a cosmic brain’s thought processes thus rebuilding the previous man-made, sin-raked primitive temple, rebuilding man’s animalistic or reptile brain standard. A mental transformation with ability of discerning spiritually –thus mental freedom in conscious choice. Rebuilding through directly knowing transcendence or Samadhi leads to unbounded awareness thus total brain functioning.

Esoteric Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan represents one’s conscious awakening to our own eternal I AM status, our means of conscious integration of the mountain of residual sin accumulated through many lifetimes. Thus the imperative of purifying the lower sin intellect unto state of Resolute intellect becomes obvious – exposing, whereby we may confront and integrate the dark side of our mind and personality naturally.

Kundalini and the Second Birth

At practical level, awakening kundalini /holy spirit, represents ‘fulfillment of the law’ Matthew 5:17, meaning, fulfillment of inner life in harmony with the laws of nature, thus awakening unto Christ within. Kundalini is real, it’s not a belief system. It’s our God-given means of achieving the second birth post physical birth unto experiential eternal nature. An alchemy not possible through lower ego’s downwards flow. Without kundalini /holy spirit activation, lower intellect remains in the mire of sin, remains in perpetual sin orbit. Setting the soul free of this downwards gravitational pull, is the work of transformative kundalini.

Alas, this lower intellect level of consciousness is recognizable in the world today most acutely: mire-orientated minds working negatively with the creative life force through greed for personal gain only. But which activity must in time play out within each soul at some level eventually – thus, notwithstanding forgiveness, through the laws of nature there is no such thing as ‘free and forgotten sin’.
So, remembering that there is only one mind, stilling the conscious mind allows for ever-deepening silence penetrate the breakaway aspect, or subconscious realm of mind.

The literal story of biblical Jesus walking into the river Jordan of course did not actually take place in physical terms – it’s a parable to make a mental-point. Thus the importance of reading this story as a powerful message of inner awakening, and not read through some mind-limiting understanding posited by vested interest groups, becomes obvious. Kundalini the holy spirit is beyond mere belief systems. In this context, I often say, literal temple was built in humans before God ever had a chance to build His Truth Temple.

Moving on.

So, we’re each born in the ‘Jordan’, thus come into this world up to our head in downward thought flow. We’re baptised in the Jordan because we’re each already in it – in sin from birth. We MUST already be this negative thought flow otherwise how could our seeking the other side come about, become realized in consciousness. We’re here to experience the downward flow, then choose either higher states of consciousness or remain in sin stagnation and soul atrophy.

Some final Scriptures

Similar to Paul’s general point: ‘Baptism commits us to a constant struggle with sin, so that we might be slaves no longer’ is, Roman’s 6:12-14 “sin must no longer rule in our bodies so that you obey the desire of the natural self”. And, Roman’s 8:5, “those who live as their human nature tells them to, have their minds controlled by what human nature (lower intellect) wants”.
In other words, negative thought flow doesn’t stop as such, rather conscious awareness is brought to expose, thus rid darkness temptation each time it surfaces in mind. Blessedly, when kundalini starts awakening, we become acutely aware of the unceasing ‘tempter’ and its compulsive lure to ‘sense gratification only’. Thus the imperative of Matthew 4-4: “man cannot live on bread alone (material nourishment) but needs every word (divine inspiration) that God speaks”.

Biblical Perspective on Cosmic Jesus, Law and Cellular Ascension

May 11, 2022 by Raymond Phelan 13 Comments

Most of us, post Covid, will be re-evaluating our lives against the backdrop of human and environmental destruction. Covid has been a major awakening lesson for us all, a lesson hopefully not be a wasted particularly regards media brainwashing. In this ‘brainwashing’ regard, checking that we’re not returning to same ‘normal’ institutional paradigms is imperative. Like Lazarus – the spiritually dead carnal mind — eternal Christ within whispers LOUDLY /affirmatively: come forth from the tomb of ignorance into the Light of Truth-consciousness.

Due to our early years of fear-based, religious conditioning – including myself at one point – many may still be interpreting Scripture literally. And although during adolescence we may not have latitude of ‘choice’, but once we come to ‘age of choice’, we’re then free to commence transitioning into spiritual maturity, when higher spiritual prompts — as biblical Lazarus received — begin revealing that we’ve been, in religious terms, systematically programmed without our adult consent and which now doesn’t feel right, as brainwashing it’s not in accord with natural evolution.

We’re not intended to remain at base camp standards simply because a preacher indoctrinated us or our family into ‘their’ indoctrinated belief system. Those primitive, imprisoning and even immoral ways of soul controlling are well and truly over. For, rendering the soul to institutional conformity represents agreement to becoming an automaton , when — due to muting self-expression — we sacrifice the mind’s potential of true ‘inner freedom’

Restricting the soul to man-made paradigms and limiting belief systems does not meet spiritual or cosmic evolution’s protocol.

As many already know, ancient bibliography is an expose in mental science, relating to inner mechanisms and their potential, but expressed through myth, metaphor and symbolism. Sadly, formal religion has turned these wonderfully composed biblical masterpieces into unrecognizable content not intended by their divinely-endowed authors. Literal interpretation has rendered much of Scripture meaningless to so many Truth-seeking souls.

So, let us look esoterically at some powerful and enabling scriptures and see how practically we may relate these to our own inner universe, and how one’s state of faith-silence-consciousness is sufficient dynamic to propel our soul out of the fixed orbit of sin, propel our soul’s evolution more speedily, more beautifully and more meaningfully in ways not previously reflected upon by formal religions.

Let us approach this inner journey from the perspective that, vibrational silence is the initiating ‘go-between’ which triggers the spiritual dynamic latent within each heart /mind and cellular grids.

So, to commence.

Metaphysically, the title / term Jesus is referring to ‘life principle’, or, that ‘vital spirit-energy,’ or ‘vital life force,’ present within each soul. In Yoga, ‘Jesus’ would be termed prana. The Sanskrit word means universal principle or ‘breath of life’ permeating the entire creation.
In this context, Jesus said to the apostles – the twelve mental faculties in the brain:

“Go forth and multiply” — Genesis 9:7

At a basic level of understanding, this scripture is particularly pertinent to cellular evolution: creating harmonious cell division for the spiritual well-being of the Whole.

Transcendent God-nature is utter silence, while karma is action — two totally opposing forces. One representing the ever-changing field of phenomenal life, the other, the never-changing Absolute state.

We know that when the body inhales, it takes in O2 or oxygen, and breathing out it exhales CO2 or, carbon dioxide: the ‘waste’ or fumes of each breath cycle; which ‘waste’ then goes to feed the forestry kingdom, which inhabitants reciprocate by breathing out their waste — in the form of pure oxygen — enabling us humans to breath in again, to include also the animal and bird kingdoms, plus the countless other unseen tiny lives. And man — as the superior species — cuts these trees down mindlessly solely for financial profit without thought or concern for the utter dependency by all of us on this God-given life-sustaining breath of life.

Reducing carbon dioxide production in the body helps achieve cellular purity. To this end, when we meditate, the body’s respiratory system reduces to its least production of carbon dioxide, thus stimulating greater cellular intelligence within the body — when cellular decay or, ageing is absent for the period of meditation.

Considering the estimated 50 trillion cells of the body, it’s possible, therefore, by transcending in meditation, for the cellular universe to reflect eternality-imbibed nature, thus on-going cellular ascension unto advance life forms. With our cells constantly vibrating and creating electromagnetic energy waves, cellular intelligence represents a vast untapped universe in evolutionary potential. “Go forth and multiply” is also linked to expansion of consciousness, which will be dealt with as the article progresses.

Jesus then said (universal Life Principle):

“What ye do unto the least of these my brethren, ye do unto me” Matthew 25:40.

‘Point’ and ‘infinity’ both contain the eternal memory of each other. So, breaking this down, let us re-term ‘point’ as transitioning to realization of ‘infinity’– transcendent state– with ‘point’ in transition to realizing ‘infinity. In other words, through the instrumentality of vibrational sound, when intellect reduces or converges to zero mind then touches infinity. Thus, in deep meditation point and infinity are realized simultaneously as equal, when, ‘unto least’ becomes ‘unto Me’. While metaphorically, ‘point and infinity are the same, ‘point’ just needs to be initiated unto realizing Transcendent consciousness, which initiation is through mantric sound.

As all present-day cells are descended from a single primordial sound, could this quantum ‘sound-atom-point’ be our ancestral Abraham from which we’re each said to be a descendant of, with Jesus representing the photon of light? – the difference only being scale.

The difference between cells and atoms are: cells are biological while atoms are chemical. A cell comprises molecules composed from atoms – which makes the atom responsible for the creation of the cell. In this context, from the Genesis ‘Adam and Eve’ perspective, the concept is best understood as not two separate beings as such, rather aspects of a single atom-splitting affair, a negative-positive interactive process involving protons and electrons where opposites attract to make spiritual electricity thus ‘point and infinity ‘coming into practical play.

As the cell represents the least ‘living’ biological entity in the body, this scripture can be understood in terms of: ‘what we do unto the cells thus we imprint onto the manifesting law of karma: attracting either positively (love) or negatively (corrosion /decay) either of which affect cellular evolution upward or downward.

Remembering, that, biblical Jesus (higher life principle) ‘spoke his Word’, meaning vibrational wisdom /intelligence unto the twelve apostles, the cellular aspect of the inner faculties.

Thus we can see that the quantum body actually represents /contains a blueprint designed to expand embryonically beyond its apparent confinement, beyond the obvious tiny status of limitation within the human body.

So, how are cells assisted in their ascension process?

Cells reflect ‘excited’ tendencies in direct proportion to the state of consciousness permeating them. Put another way: cells reproduce according to the operational law of their master’s intellect, meaning, the conscious discerning capacity of our mind: is it rooted one-pointedly in cosmic order or, primed in lawless dis-order, corruption and negativity. Thus, the first law of ANY universe is order (symbolized by James) and single-mindedness thus mind’s harmonious functioning.

Descendants of Vibrational Life Force

When broken down acoustically, the word ‘atom’ resembles the vowels A-U-M, the vibrational dynamic behind all creation. Thus the sound ‘A-T-OM’ (atom) also becomes directional to its own source of creation. Even the vowels AB-RA-Ham I believe are symbolic of vibratory life force and creation. These words, and many like them, are specific vowels chosen to highlight the resonances required for entry into the right brain hemisphere and, by extension, stimulate the nervous system into consciously knowing /experiencing two states of consciousness simultaneously — time and no-time, eternity and relative life..

In this context, we each carry the responsibility of triggering our own fathering process of healthy cellular /nervous system development through inner primordial resonance. At cellular level our brain and body are decedents of this eternally multiplying sound wave. When initiated in meditation, these vowels carry the vibratory cosmic waves whereby mind can transcend the three ever-changing gunas of nature unto reorientation in never-changing, never-ageing Self.

Hindu culture has that beautiful word A-T-MA which carries the same awakening dynamic as A-U-M and A-T-OM and, AB-RA-hAM. Thus, in realizing eternal Self or Atman, mind /brain first undergoes vibrational activity, scripturally phrased “no one comes to the Father but through Me” John 6: 44 (or, our connection with God is through vibration).

In realizing ‘connection’, mantra vibration stirs the mountain of deeply embedded sin or, stress rooted in the cells for eons thereby purify the accumulations of toxin carryover — when we say to the mountain of fear, stress, and phobia ‘be gone into the sea’ of pure faith-silence in meditation. Mark 11: 23.

Humans accredit creation unto God, and, yes, that’s true. But, that, it’s God the Holy Spirit which creates — third person /aspect in /of the blessed trinity – through creative wave resonance. But, that, God the Absolute or, Self does not create, rather remains the silent ocean, the witness of creation.

Genesis 1:27 ESV puts it: “So God (Vibration) created man (mind) in his own (Light) image, in the image (imagination) of God (the Holy Spirit) he created him; male and female (proton/electron aspects of atom) he (through vibrational holy spirit) created them” – the yin/yang, dynamic of cellular status. But that, Self or Absolute is uncreated.

To facilitate the spiritual evolution of creation, a healthy medium or conduit needs to be in place. Thus the human medium /channels of creation and evolution are as follows:

Brain is end organ of consciousness.
Consciousness is end ynamic of Vibrational God the Holy Spirit, — of A-U-M sounding resonances.
Nervous system is end organ of the brain.
Body is end organ of nervous system.

Telomerase Decrease

As mentioned earlier, a single cell is the smallest entity of all ‘living’ things. But here it’s worth remembering, that, through chronic psychological stress, rooted in conditioning from all quarters of religious, political and social life, an enzyme called telomerase decreases with each cell division.

To offset this decrease, daily meditation results in greater telomerase activity, indicative of optimum mental-physiological health and immune cell longevity. Meditation prevents shortening of telomeres by activating the gene that makes the anti-ageing enzyme, telomerase, not normally active in our cells. By influencing the genetic code within each cell, meditation achieves — “doing unto the least of my brethren”– the process of reprogramming cells for ascension consciousness.

Spiritual evolution thus is regards harnessing Nature’s creative, multiplying /maintenance principle, the cosmic intelligence, or law, presiding over the physical cosmos /universe, which Law, at individual level, amounts to pure silence or, pure transcendental consciousness.

Our own body, to the individual cells, represents God. But these same cells, to becoming spiritually mature, are fully dependent on the level of evolved consciousness which they are feeding on. The responsibility of providing advance cellular growth soil lies with the successful resurrection of our own intellect thus resurrection of our consciousness. This is why transcending ‘the laws of decaying negative karma’ is vital.

Through the incomprehensible organizational power of Nature, cellular /molecular intelligence is constantly vibrating and creating electromagnetic energy waves, thus potentially parenting unfathomable depths of beauty and advance life forms, into eternal; existence.

Vibrating Substance

We can now state that pure consciousness is also the substance of evolution And, that, what ‘we do unto the least’ — unto the cells – will be in accordance with the vibratory level of one’s consciousness-substance.

At the practical level, mental energy is formed by creating more neural pathways, synapses or, neural sparks in the brain. In this context, the brighter our love-infused heart spark, the more synapses or connections are created in the brain.

It’s estimated there are 100 billion connections in the average human brain which is more than the amount of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy and, there are an estimated 100 billion galaxies. Truly these ‘inner’ brain sparks and physical universes are divinely interconnected.

“If ye love me keep my commandments” – John: 14:15

This scripture, of course, is not referring to the literally-interpreted ten commandments espoused by formal religions, but to the cosmic Life Force functioning through the brain and seven chakra centres located along the spinal column — culminating in awakening the vital pineal and pituitary glands in the brain.

Chakras are energy Command centres, they distribute the life-force responsible for awakening the right brain hemisphere – home of the cranial nerves – unto becoming aligned with the cosmic harmonic resonance, triggering consciousness to reflect spiritually.

The verse is stating that, as our every pre-awakening activity stems from ‘law of sin’, then this mental law impulse should be transformed, made harmonious to reflect in accordance with spiritual evolution — alignment in rejuvenating divine resonance as opposed to decaying sin toxicity. In other words, as the nature of every expressed thought ultimately finds its way into our physiology and cellular system our priority thus is with our thoughts thereby avoid negative karmic response from the laws of nature through the out-of-tune mental mechanisms.

Biblical commandments essentially are impulses of Nature’s organizational intelligence operating in the brain. Subtle prompts from the depths of Being that align our mind-body-spirit harmoniously through every stage of the evolution process. Commandments are naturally kept while in meditation, when, post meditation life simply involves living consciously or cosmically through higher wisdom.

As spiritual beings, commandment-keeping is our intended way of living, where any level below this vibration is considered animal frequency.

The word “If” you love me” is significant. Paraphrased it translates: ‘now that we’re inner awakening and have realized bliss-consciousness or Self as separate from the outer world, that we establish, and apply, this conscious awareness at resisting the ever-tempting lower senses.

“Do not tempt the Lord, thy God” Matthew 4:7 KJV

Depending on our mode of consciousness and mental activity, the operating law in which our mind is established becomes the operating law in our life. Thus, our mental /emotional state tempts /triggers similar previously stored emotions into the mind/body physiology.

By transcending these laws of mind /body — the three gunas — in meditation, the inner faculties become ‘neutralized’, free of unwitting law violation, thus avoid storing negativity seeds for future incubation into the physiology.

Transcendence is totally about entering into mental silence thereby culture steadfastness of thought and emotional balance; when temptation to judge — the eternal perfect moment — is resolved through calm-full Presence and understanding.

“As above so below” (co-existence of spiritual and natural or, brain /universe synergy)

Matthew 6:10 KJV puts it: “Thy will (as opposed to karmic law) be done ‘in’ earth (mind /body) as ‘it’ (Transcendent law) ‘is’ in heaven (bliss-consciousness)”.
Matthew represents divine Will.

Put another way: microcosm and macrocosm.

So, the human brain represents a microcosm of the macrocosm universe.

Like the universe, the human brain cells – and by extension, the entire physical cellular /nervous system ‘earth’ – are created for presently unimaginable spiritual expansion into new life-formations. Thus as everything in the heavenly creation is in different stages of vibratory evolution, therefore, every cellular life form has a specific purpose to fulfill, when not even silence and consciousness remain static.

By harnessing transcendental silence thus the cellular system /consciousness reflect ‘Above’ status: or, when cell ‘point’ becomes ‘infinity’ thus ‘infinity’ becomes cell ‘point’.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit

Jesus said: “I (Holy Spirit) have come (resurrected intellect) not to abolish the Law (of karma) but to fulfill the Law” (establish divine standard of consciousness) – Matthew 5:17

Biblical “Jesus” represents the eternal Life Force within each of us, and the word “said” — which is not a spoken word — is referring to the all-vital emanative qualities of the universal Holy Spirit. Qualities such as: love, peace, goodness, patience, happiness, joy and, self-control.
‘Jesus’ is another title for Kundalini the transformative life force expanding the heart-cosmos. Without this transmutation, human awareness remains under law of sin — Romans 8:7.

Thus, it’s the unwitting misuse of the laws of nature which is causal of all suffering – biblically put: “By their fruits shall ye know them” Matthew 7: 16–20. in other words, inner and outer environment reflect in exact proportion to our habitual thought patterns. This reflection demonstrates unerringly which law of mind we’re operating through – compelling law of sin or compelling law of God the Holy Spirit.
Instead of the innumerable laws working against us – through ignorance — the mind, when transcendentally-infused, becomes cosmically charged so that these laws reflect ‘Will of God’ automatically. When, eventually, intellect becomes Master, or Lord, over our entire inner universe. When ‘fulfilling the Law’ fulfills Jesus’ words “it is done”: Ascension of Consciousness is Realized.

Now, as we can see, the term(s) ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ becomes of major significance within each of us. Words, which, when interpreted metaphysically, represent vastly different understanding from what we were choicelessly indoctrinated into by institutional religion.

Practically put:

‘Lord — relating to our becoming Master of the lower senses,

‘Jesus’ — relating to flowing the holy spirit through our heart,

Christ’ — relating to having Self-Realized Christ within.

The trinity of our own Soul reflecting as Lord Jesus Christ, heralding ascension of consciousness, to miraculously include the cellular intelligence kingdom unto ever-renewing spiritual frontiers.

The Developing Intellect in Biblical Symbolism: Part 2

April 17, 2022 by Joshua Tilghman 27 Comments

In my personal opinion, the quote I will mention below was stated by one of the most knowledgeable and greatest mystics of the modern world. Her formal name is Helena Patrova Blavatsky, or sometimes known as HPB. Many who decide to study her life and Magnus Opum, The Secret Doctrine, have come to understand the great contribution she left to society at large. She was personal friends with Ghandi, known by Thomas Edison, many of the greatest writers and poets of modern times, and some believe read by Einstein. Her life’s work was dedicated to bringing the original ancient wisdom that lay beneath and connects all great scriptures and religions of the world – in their esoteric origin and intent. She was a fierce intellect stating some of the principles Einstein would lay out in the future as early as 1887 through her famous dialogues with her inner circle, decades before Einstein would compose General Relativity. But most of all, I am impressed by her love of truth, which she stated first and foremost as the dedication to the upliftment of all humanity and nature as the ONE LIFE in which we are all involved. To that aim she seemed to have genuinely dedicated her entire soul to.

Here is just one in a myriad of her knowledgeable quotes helping us to understand the ONE LIFE:

“Spirit is universal…It cannot know itself except as soul. Spirit is the “power to become;” Soul is “the becoming.” Spirit is the power to see and know; Soul is the seeing and knowing. Soul is the accumulation of perceptions and experiences by means of which Spiritual Identity is realized.”

Anyone who pays close attention to her statement will perhaps better understand why I drove the comment section in part one of this series in the direction that I did. When I stated that “I AM THAT I AM” is the power to “become,” perhaps some misunderstood my intent. The Unknown, eternal nature of the divine is the eternal ONE Essence which cannot be defined by human intellect, but as the ancient doctrine teaches us, it can be felt as an experience. While we are yet “individual souls,” our essence is as the Bhagavad Gita makes clear, “Thou art Parabrahm,” or, “Thou art THAT. In other words, there is a divine relationship between the individual and the Absolute, and as the Apostle Paul states, it is a mystery.

Shortly, we will get to Blavatsky’s comment and dissect it in detail using the Scriptures of the Bible as a perfect correlate for those looking to explore this type of metaphysics. But for now, we have to start with a proper introduction to a concept that is, in my opinion, foundational to grasp.

Karma…

What is it? The Eastern meaning translates best in English as “action.” And what is the basis of all action? This post will show that any action’s fundamental essence in the human soul is in fact an accumulation of prior thought, whether self-conscious or unconscious, purposeful and with knowledge, or blind and ignorant.

In the West we probably have an idea of Karma as cause and effect. This is also a good definition to start with, but I would like to broaden this concept a little more as something all pervasive and omnipresent. The Bible seems to state this in its esoteric meaning, but I will let you be the judge. Since this is predominantly a Bible site, let’s go there and review some of the scriptures that I hope will give you some pause to consider as they relate to, what I believe, is karma.

“Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap” (Gal. 6:7).

Whether we define Karma as cause and effect or action, we can see that the Apostle Paul is expressing the same idea.This idea that “God cannot be mocked” by the human intellect has something to do with a universal law of reaping and sowing, which cannot be defied, because it is in operation everywhere at all times. The pretext of this scripture is also interesting. A few verses above, it states: “Let every man PROVE his own work…” and “For every man shall bear his own burden.”

Burden of what?

As we shall see, his or her thoughts and actions!

But here are some more scriptures to consider from the master Jesus that perhaps may broaden our view of the ONE LAW, as karma, being an integral concept throughout the Bible even though Western religious ideology has not typically seen it this way:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill (Matt 5:17).

It might be a strange concept for some to think Jesus is using the Old Testament law and the prophets in the context of Karma. Understandable. An exoteric view (the literal rendition of the carnal mind) of the Old Testament would suggest the law given to Moses was a set of specific rules to live by. And oh, but they are! But esoterically, and in a holistically and spiritual viewpoint, these rules govern the evolution of the soul, its growth and development, as it relates to the mind. Jesus is acknowledging a certain phase of evolution, that even he, as the ONE UNIVERSAL LIFE PRINCIPLE in manifestation, as the Word, needs fulfillment. There is no denial, nor could there ever be, for the very essence and spirit of Jesus Christ is the EMBODIMENT of that law. This is clearly stated at the end of the verse, acknowledging, I am come to FULFILL it. In the broader sense Jesus is stating that the Word made flesh is the fullness of the entire law, from beginning to end, in each stage of its evolutionary stages, through every character as symbolically represented as the soul’s developing nature. And none of these stages can be denied.

Jesus also reiterates his mission in another way: to fulfill the will of his father. And what is the Father’s will? Esoterically, it is universal and cosmic law which governs both the visible and invisible worlds, known to us in name as karma, to which the man can choose, if he or she so wishes, to become a co-worker with it. The Apostle Paul came to accept this sentiment when he stated that he had learned to be content in all situations, as a form of mental surrender to it.

The first generation of Isrealites (the beginning of qualities and faculties “called out” in the soul to be disciplined) reveals the struggle the mind affords man. They were always wanting to return to Egypt where they had “flesh” to eat. Remember in my first article eating pertains to what the mind gravitates to as mental ideas. The real problem of interpreting the Bible literally, is that it places all the stories into a historical narrative, wherein the religious institutions of the world say one must believe in that historical framework in order to become saved. But this historical narrative is contrived by cultural and political ideology which is man’s laws in partial ignorance, not God’s law, the universal law of nature.

One way to become a co-worker with this universal law is to first know that this law is omnipresent, eternally working, in every facet of our lives. For as Jesus also stated, nothing shall pass away until every jot and tittle of that law be fulfilled. God also states that my people perish for a lack of knowledge. And what is this lack of knowledge? It is failing to understand this cosmic law as an ever pervasive principle in the soul of man, ever guiding and evolving it, inwardly and outwardly. Man has the ability then to conform his thoughts in such a way that he becomes a co-worker with this ever pervasive, omnipresent law, or to be ignorant of it, and therefore be subject to the effect of going against it as the Isrealites did in the wilderness and forever incurred its just cause and effect. Every man reaps what he sows, either towards life, or towards spiritual death. That first generation continually denied it until they perished, and the next phase in the evolution of the soul under Joshua and Caleb began.

Everything comes down to a man’s thoughts in a certain stage of evolution, and that stage, where most of humanity is today, has much to do with the intellect and one’s own inner conscience, that still small voice that can speak to us if the intellect trains itself, and disciplines itself, to hear it. Man’s intellect can either gravitate towards the spirit, or be mired by the desire-nature. Man must surrender his desire mind, or personal self interests, to the ONENESS of all life. He or she must surrender ambition, pride, vanity, lusts and greed in all thought. For only in so doing can his mind become freed by the spirit. And as I will show, scripture teaches this principle as a self-conscious act of responsibility, through the act of thinking. As the Apostle Paul stated, all things that are lovely and true, “think” on these things. And in the Old Testament the law demanded that every first born son, whether human or animal, was to be dedicated to God. And sons and daughters symbolically represent our thoughts and emotions, which are to be dedicated to the spirit rather than the flesh or carnal mind, the desire mind.

Consider how Jesus stated how important thought really is when he tells us that if a man lusts after a woman in his heart, he has ALREADY committed adultery. Can anyone deny here the foundational aspect of thought, and its basis for all action? The revolutionary concept being conveyed here is that even before any action is committed, it is ROOTED in thought! Perhaps this is why that great mystic Blavatsky stated that all “Action” is a prior accumulation of thoughts. Do we see a correlation here between Blavatsky and Christ’s words? Absolutely!

Retributive justice then is always fair and equitable as karma, and we are rewarded for our thought, for it is us, as we are! Again, that Bible scripture cannot ring true enough: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Can we deny then the basic power and nature of thought itself!? And what it means for the human condition!? We all reap what we sow, in thought. And this goes part and parcel with the intellectual man in our current stage of evolution of which we are all a part.

William Q Judge, one of the best friends of Blavatsky, also stated:

“When the period of rest after death is ended Manas (mind) is bound by innumerable electrical magnetic threads to earth by reason of the thoughts of the last life, and therefore by desire, for it was desire that caused so many thoughts and ignorance of the true nature of things. And understanding of this doctrine of man being really a thinker and made of thought will make clear all the rest in relation to incarnation and reincarnation. The body of the inner man is made of thought, and this being so it must follow that if the thoughts have more affinity for earth-life than for life elsewhere a return to life here is inevitable.”

Consider this in relation to Paul’s words, that as a man soweth, so shall he reap. The immortal thinker is a sower and a reaper. For those who can accept it, Mr. William Judge has just given the essence and subsequent meaning, in the esoteric sense, to the allegorical fall of Adam in the Garden.

He further states:

“The fifth principle is Manas…and is usually translated as Mind. Other names have been given to it, but it is the knower, the perceiver, the thinker…Manas, or the Thinker is the reincarnating being, the immortal who carries the results and values of all the different lives lived on earth or elsewhere. Its nature becomes dual as soon as it is attached to a body…In Manas the thoughts of all lives are stored…the total quantity of life thoughts makes up the stream or thread of a life’s meditation – “that upon which the heart was set” – and is stored in Manas, to be brought out again at any time in whatever life the brain and bodily environments are similar to those used in engendering that class of thoughts. It is Manas which sees the objects presented to it by the bodily organs and the actual organs within. When the open eye receives a picture on the retina, the whole scene is turned into vibrations in the optic nerves which disappear into the brain, where Manas is enabled to perceive them as idea.”

I want us to focus on one important statement of Judge above: “…the total quantity of life-thoughts makes up the stream or thread of a life’s meditation – that upon which the heart was set”.

And so we can see that whatsoever a man soweth is related first and foremost to his thoughts and ideas, and that which HE BECOMES IN MANIFESTATION.

It is interesting that the Sanskrit word for mind stems from manas. And this correlates to “mana” from “heaven,” which the Israelites that left Egypt were supposed to eat symbolically (in post one eating relates to perception of ideas), but rejected God’s food (or spiritual ideas, which the lower self and selfish personality is often apt to do!). And this is why esoterically they, the people (the potential faculties of becoming the disciplined mind), have to wander around in the desert so long until Joshua and Caleb rise up under the law. They represent two aspects of the mind. Joshua, being from the tribe of Ephriam, is one that sets his analytical mind correctly, and Caleb, being from the tribe of Judah, is the aspect of the higher mind. The union of the two, which can only be accomplished by Joshua’s proper thoughts, is thus the leader that leads the people (the faculties and qualities) to the Promised Land. This is why Joshua didn’t live by sight, or external reality, but by the inner man, and set his thought correctly towards the higher life and spirit in that Promised Land, which refused to believe or see the external report. It is Moses, the intellectual and moral nature developing in man (through the law), that is the foundation for both the coming of Joshua and Caleb. Every detail in scripture is important, and little thought is ever given to why Joshua is associated with the tribe of Ephriam (NOT JUDAH!). And Ephriam camped on the left side of the tabernacle. Jesus is from Judah, and this is why both Joshua and Caleb are needed, the two aspects of the mind. We must think, and discern!

William Judge also once said on his translation of the Bhagavad Gita:

“Man, made of thought, occupant only of many bodies from time to time, is eternally thinking. His chains are through thought, his release due to nothing else.”

So we see that according to Mr. Judge, our release is contingent upon our thought. Thought is what traps us, but it is also what releases us, in the sense that it requires a certain stage in evolution to begin the true free will of the spiritual mind to manifest itself in US, and THROUGH us.

Blavatsky gives us more information to ponder on the working of this process:

“Manas, the Mind Principle, is the connecting link between our pure nature, eternal, spiritual nature and our mortal, physical, material, personal nature…it is continually presented with the choice between spirituality and sensuality and has to choose one or the other, since the spiritual nature and the sensual nature can never and will never mix or meet. Manas cannot go in both directions at once. It can only either go up or down…up towards spirituality or down towards sensuality…Whichever one it chooses will shape and determine its destiny and its future evolutionary progress.”

Perhaps we can now see why Jesus states that man cannot serve two masters. He meant either the desire mind or the spiritual mind. For Blavatsky states, “The Self of Matter and the SELF of Spirit can never meet. One of the twain must disappear; there is no place for both.”

And what is perhaps the most important concept she gives to these points further elucidated:

She states: “The Mind, which we have agreed to call the Human Soul…is a compound in its highest form, of spiritual aspirations, volitions and divine love [Abel]; and in its lower aspect, of animal desires and terrestrial passions imprated to it by its associations with its vehicle, the seat of all these [Cain]. It thus stands as a link and a medium between the animal nature of man which its higher reason seeks to subdue, and his divine spiritual nature to which it gravitates, whenever it has the upper hand in its struggle with the inner animal…”

And…

“Whenever [the mind] disconnects itself, for the time being, with [from] kama, becomes the guide of the highest mental faculties, and is the organ of the free will in physical man.”

I leave you with one more thought from the Book of Hebrews that is perhaps the best statement of karma and reincarnation in the Bible, in my humble opinion:

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

Some of God’s most faithful servants didn’t receive the promise. They welcomed them though from a distance. Meaning, the Hebrews’s author understands that the omnipresent eternal law is evolving the soul, and we can become a coworker with its divine attributes. These people which knew they were strangers in a land correlates to the aspects, attributes, and faculties of the evolving soul in its stages of growth and development and discipline under the spirit.

To not see that this scripture is probably one of the most profound statements backing up reincarnation of the soul and the law of karma is a travesty!

Man was never meant to transcend the LAW. He was meant to become a co-operator with it! For he is that law itself, unfolding in many ways and on many planes of its manifested presence. This is also clearly stated in Jeremiah, where the eternal law is written on the heart, not in transcending it as the religious mindset today sometimes so insidiously advocated, but becoming at ONE WITH IT.

Now let us finally return to HPB’s statement I made at the outset of this entire post. HPB’s quote above gets us close to the nature of who we are, and what we are to become, within the human condition. Let’s break it down.

“Spirit cannot know itself except as Soul,” she states.

The logic seems sound if we ponder it deeply. How could any substance universally diffused be self-consciously aware, which requires an individualized perception? And this is our mind manifested through a personality. The fall of the universal mind into matter allowed man to “KNOW” good and evil, or the duality of nature. This was the opportunity for the spirit to get it know itself, once self consciousness had been achieved. Before it was truly innocent because it knew not how to self-reflect on its current condition, but rather followed the law in its lowest workings. In order to become conscious of itself, it would need some further evolutionary development.

Now let’s look more at Blavatsky’s quote and dig even deeper!
“Spirit is the “power to become;” Soul is “the becoming.”

According to her words, spirit then, is the “power” to “become.” If one has a power, but never uses it, it lays dormant or latent, and manifests as nothing. All this talk in the New Age movement of today endlessly speaks of our power, and what we truly are as “divine” entities. And while this is true, it means nothing. Absolutely NOTHING, except what could be. In other words, it remains as an abstraction unless realized. To realize anything, the soul in the human kingdom must use the mental, emotional, and physical form to move in the direction of “becoming” something more, or expanded, than what it was prior. This can only be accomplished through “experience,” and the knowledge that can be gained through this experience. If one perceives the entire book of Job from beginning to end, one might realize that in the beginning of the Book, he only KNEW God by the hearing of the ear. But at the end of this journey, through his encounter with the adversary, he came to know God personally.

Blavatsky further quotes:

“Soul is the accumulation of perceptions and experiences by means of which Spiritual Identity is realized.”

Spiritual identity? What is she really getting at? Spirit, as a universally diffused principle, cannot be said to have any identity unless an aspect of its potential has become “realized” into a form, and that is our soul, and more specifically, the mind. It is ultimately an illusion, Maya. Yes! But not because it isn’t a real experience, but only because the experience is temporary, and continually changing.

The same concept is taught in that great esoteric book of Malachi, where Yaweh states, bring all the “tithes” into the storehouse. Tithes here simply symbolize an effort, mentally, emotionally, and physically, to dedicate all to God, which becomes “stored” as a permanent spiritual volition and cements itself to the immortal aspect of the higher ego. This “storehouse” is known more esoterically as the “causal body” or soul, which is the composite I spoke of earlier of spiritual volition cemented to unconditioned immortality. Such soul essence is what incarnates partially in each incarnation. Partially, as it informs and becomes the lower personality, which has the right and potential to add more to the “storehouse.”

Many Christians interpret the blessings that God will pour out back to them in Malachi as wealth, or physical prosperity, but it has little to do with personal life, and rather more to do with the permanent acquired attributes of the individuality, which remains as such only because those are spiritual volitions which have married itself to universality.

Now let’s expand upon those confusing above words and go into some esoteric thought that will run contrary to much New Age thought, but what I think is absolutely vital! How does the spiritual soul “realize” itself? And what is the true purpose of the aspects of the lower souls?

Blavatsky gives the esoteric key here in these statements:

“…the higher Mind in Man, or his Ego (Manas) is, when linked indivisibly with Buddhi, a spirit…”

In other words, the middle soul, or human mind, is the cementing link between the marriage of the lower personality and the Holy Spirit.

She further explains:

“”Buddhi becomes conscious by the accretions it gets from Manas after every new incarnation…”

Before explaining further, I will now link another scripture, which people can either accept or deny in its esoteric significance.

Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? (Ecc: 3:21).

And this also brings us back to the middle part of Blavatsky’s brilliant quote which we haven’t dissected yet:

“Spirit is the power to see and know..”

I will end here even though I feel like there is so much more to say on the subject. But the post is becoming quite long already 🙂 Perhaps I will conclude with this sentiment: the intellect of man in this world of manifestation is not the pinnacle of man, but rather an evolutionary stage that has to be set right. There will come a time in humanity’s future, that some already KNOW, where even the intellect is simply a tool of the spirit. Who knows how many have already accomplished this point in the great stages of humanity’s evolution? I certainly don’t. And who can say where we each out in those stages of evolution except of the spirit within us all? We each have to decide how much we have surrendered the intellect to the will of the father. But hopefully this post provides some thoughts that we can all self reflect on, and how much we are being coworkers with that great law, which is both God and man in manifestation 🙂

Blessings 🙂

The Mystery of Gethsemane: Grasping the Importance of Meditation

February 8, 2022 by Elizabeth Scott 54 Comments

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 St. Paul teaches, “Pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus” (Jerusalem Bible). A simpler translation renders this verse as “Pray without ceasing.” Tertullian of Carthage instructs, “Of prayer, nothing at all has been prescribed, except clearly ‘to pray at every time and every place…’ why should we not understand that, with absolutely perfect indifference, we must pray?” This admonition — that we must work to achieve an omnipresent state of “perfectly indifferent” prayer, or in simpler words meditation — might come as a shock to contemporary Christians who, unfortunately, are increasingly distant from the original meditation tradition. Many Christians now associate meditation with non-Christian eastern traditions, but really, the prolonged “indifferent” Christian prayer that we ought to pray is not much different than oriental meditation. For the sake of ease, I will now be referring to this specific style of prayer as “meditation.”

When we are taught to “Pray without ceasing” St. Paul doesn’t mean you should spend all of your waking hours prostrated in prayer! Rather, he is talking about being in a constant state of thanksgiving, echoing the Psalmist in Psalm 105: “Give thanks to Yahweh, call his name aloud/proclaim his deeds to the peoples!/Sing to him, play to him/tell over all his marvels!/Glory in his holy name/let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice!” (Psalm 105:1-3). The easiest way to maintain this state of mind is to train the mind to be able to reach prolonged states of intense contemplation. Sitting down to devote an hour or even 30 minutes to God can help you to feel the Holy Spirit at that moment, but more importantly, you are cultivating your mind and attaining insights that you continue to carry with you. Spontaneous prayer arises out of having insight into the all-encompassing significance of prayer, an insight that is best taught experientially through cultivating various states of contemplation.

The key to meditation practice is found in an esoteric reading of the Bible and careful study of ancient wisdom traditions which, east or west, all testify to the power of deep contemplation. People sometimes oversimplify meditation to be just about “clearing your mind” or sitting down for a long time focusing on your breath. That is fine, but decontextualizing your meditation practice from religious teaching is unlikely to have as lasting an impression. Jesus said, “I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved” (Matthew 5:18). Esoterically, this verse means that awakening the Christ nature within requires the mastery of not just the higher mind, but also the lower mind. To awaken Christ mystically, you must first awaken Christ intellectually. In the spirit of “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little” (Isaiah 28:13) let us proceed to look at the Bible in an esoteric way to uncover the teachings of attaining the Christ nature within.

Phillippians 2:6-8 reads “His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and become as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.” Here we can see that death does not just mean physical death, but a deeper rift between Jesus’s godly nature and His descended condition, which is echoed in His cry of abandonment on the cross (“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”). This is not unique in the Bible; death usually signifies something deeper than just the end of mortal life. This is shown when Yahweh God tells Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree. Genesis 2:17 says, “The day you eat of it you shall most surely die.” Obviously, this didn’t refer to physical death, because when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree they did not physically die. Like with Jesus’s Passion, death here signifies being abandoned by God. Jesus, being fully man as well as fully God, echoes our anguish in being separated from God, but through the mystery of His Incarnation, the hope of reconciliation manifests. Jesus’s prayer to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane is a divine mystery through which Jesus’s Ascension back to His Father is foreshadowed even as He experiences the bitter pain of abandonment. And as we too have the hope of reconciliation with God, we too must follow His example and pray. Jesus told St. Margaret Mary Alacoque “I will make you partake of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives. United with Me in the humble prayer which I then offered to My Father.” Understanding the profound significance of this event, not only as part of Jesus’s redemptive passion which would provide for the remission of sins but also as a mystery in which we are called to partake in, let us examine the account of the garden of Gethsemane esoterically.

“After psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.” (Matthew 26:30) First, we must establish what the Mount of Olives signifies. The Mount of Olives, or the Garden of Gethsemane, like other gardens in the Bible, signifies purity and fruition. In Genesis we read, “Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). The garden represents the plane of the mind that is fertile (“From the soil, Yahweh God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of Heaven” — Genesis 2:19) where virtues of the soul are brought forth. Singing psalms implicates the elevation of the self; through psalms, one acquires the spirit of thanksgiving proper to ascend to the Garden of Gethsemane.

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Stay here while I pray.’ Then he took Peter and James and John with him” (Mark 14:32-33). Peter, James, and John are generally considered Jesus’s most favored of the disciples; this exact trio shows up several times throughout the Bible. They signify faith (Peter), the intellect (James), and love (John). Notably, these are the only disciples, and therefore the only qualities of the self, that are permitted to ascend to the Garden.

“When they reached the place he said to them, ‘Pray not to be put to the test’” (Luke 22:40). As Peter, James, and John represent faith, the intellect, and love, here Jesus is saying to treasure the virtues of faith, the intellect, and love, and to pray that they do not waver. As we will read, even these virtues are not infallible; however, preemptively rejecting them prevents us from transcending them. To the contrary of rejecting the virtues, Jesus tells the disciples, “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here and keep awake with me” (Matthew 26:38).

“Then he withdrew from them, about a stone’s throw away, and knelt” (Luke 22:41). Here, the soul is still very near to the three virtues, only a stone’s throw away, but it has “withdrawn” from them, prepared to transcend.

“He threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, this hour might pass him by. ‘Abba (Father)!’ he said. ‘Everything is possible for you. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it’” (Mark 14:35-36). The “cup” in esoteric literature is traditionally understood to be a receptacle of wisdom; so the Pistis Sophia says “A higher power bringeth a Cup full of intuition and wisdom.” This verse is demonstrating the disconcerting quality of wisdom; our primal instinct flees wisdom, but the Christ nature turns over the instinctive self to God. The human aversion towards wisdom is well documented throughout theology, psychology, and history. The primordial human problem can be seen to be the human preference of illusions over reality; indeed, the comical lengths that each one of us will go to in order to maintain the illusion is inexplicable. The triumph over the instinct of delusion is fulfilled only in the elusive Garden.

“Then an angel appeared to him, coming from heaven to give him strength” (Luke 22:43). This verse demonstrates that despite the utter isolation experienced by Christ in the Garden, it is impossible for Him (or for us) to ever be completely severed from the Heavens above, and always the Father is with us sending His heavenly messengers to embolden us for the coming battle.

“He came back and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Had you not the strength to keep awake one hour? You should be awake, and praying not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’” (Mark 14:37-38). Here we see the failure of the three virtues. Sleep signifies oblivion; this passage shows that the three virtues do not together contain all wisdom, but that the Christ nature transcends them. “Flesh” represents the lower nature of the self; spirit, as Gaskell put it, is the “formative aspect of the Divine outpouring.” In other words, the spirit is the receptacle in which God resides in us. When we are “put to the test,” for the Christ nature to rise within us the spirit must ultimately transcend the weaker virtues of the flesh.

“Again he went away and prayed, saying the same words…He came back a third time and said to them, ‘You can sleep on now and take your rest. It is all over. The hour has come’” (Mark 14:39;41). The number “three” represents completeness, as in the Holy Trinity and the Resurrection (Jesus arose from the dead on the third day). The number denotes that something transformative has transpired here. By saying “It is all over,” Jesus is foreshadowing His final victory on the Cross — “It is consummated” (John 19:30). The spirit has finally triumphed over the weaker aspects of the self, and the weaker self can “rest.” This calls back to Genesis 2:3; “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on that day he had rested after all his work of creating.” Of course, the word “day” does not refer to a 24 hour period but to the final stage that follows the creative period. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus has finished His anguished mystery, and His disciples, not destroyed but in a state of repose, are justly restored to the rest that has no end.

An esoteric reading of the Garden of Gethsemane provides us with a template wherein the Christ nature in us triumphs over the weaker flesh. Through understanding the significance of the Garden, may you feel driven to start a practice of contemplation so that you may experience this elusive mystery yourself.

Resurrecting Biblical Terms

April 28, 2021 by Joshua Tilghman 72 Comments

In its esoteric sense, the risen Christ is an emblem – built upon many symbols in Biblical literature – of the supreme intelligence dwelling in the holy temple of man, or, more accurately, of the mind. It is the end goal of human consciousness so aptly expressed by the Apostle Paul who stated, “I travail in birth until Christ be formed IN you.” The same sentiment is expressed in John 4:2, which further states, “Christ must come in the flesh,” or the expression of Jesus in the Gospel of John 14:20 which states, “In that day you will realize [consciously perceive] that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I in you.” In the context of all these scriptural expressions, one can begin to grasp Luke 17:21: “The kingdom of God is [truly] within you.” As above, so below.

But what is this supreme intelligence, the risen Christ, in the MIND of man? I like to think of it as the supra-rational order of the Logos, which is an alchemical combination of two concepts: love, or unity, achieved through the wisdom of experience, wherein the spiritual law, or karma, is ever striving to bring to equilibrium between the knowledge of good and evil within man. Jesus is THE MASTER emblem of the mind which achieved this great feat in human form. For he fulfilled the law, and IN Christ Jesus, the schoolmaster, or law, achieved its end result. True liberty from that law is the mind’s destiny. Again, in its esoteric sense, this liberty is expressed through the mind that is no longer identified with, or trammeled by, the passions expressed in the lower mind through the bodies of man. As Paul states, and I paraphrase many of his thoughts…these members must be mortified if the mind is ever to be regenerated and escape the prison shackles of what he termed the “flesh.” For he also states, the mind of the flesh is death…” (Romans 8:6).

The journey is long and arduous. There are many mental giants to slay. In our greatest trials and adversities, the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force. Not physical force, but mental force. This mental force is the control of thought and emotion, that contrary to our true nature, is usually governed by personal desire in the flesh…until the resurrection, or that which is the conqueror, the Self over the Not-Self. Christ over the flesh.

But this is a paradox. How can using our mental faculties help us achieve spiritual growth if it is Christ, the true redeemer, and not the efforts of man him or herself?

The paradox is easily resolved, and one finds that it is really no paradox at all when one understands how the MIND grows spiritually. The rest of this post will deal with that subject in detail using some of the Apostle Paul’s greatest teachings.

Let’s consider the supposed paradox further: no man can redeem him or herself as traditional church doctrine teaches, because it is only through the saving grace of Christ. But the esoteric doctrine of past ages taught that man must save himself through his or her own unrelenting effort. Who is right? I believe both are right, because the concept of Christ coming in the flesh is an inherent part of both paths – faith and works – expressed through mental energy. My scripture to support this idea is written:

“As a man THINKETH in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7).

Let’s break this down a little further. Paul uses symbolism to express this process. When the symbols are understood correctly, I believe the paradox is resolved. The author of Peter states that Paul’s writings are hard to understand. The reason for this is that Paul is using language that is esoteric / symbolic, and his symbolism expresses a process of MIND and THOUGHT. The popular teaching of Paul which states that a woman must be silent in church and submit to her husband is not speaking in literal terms. Failure to understand the esoteric teachings of Paul has led to misogynism in traditional religious doctrine. But Paul had no such ideas in mind. Paul uses terms like husband and wife, or man and woman, to show a process of regeneration of THOUGHT, which is why so many Greek words are used to express the concepts of correct thought in his writings. Let’s break down the symbols.

Man means the intellectual side of the mind. A woman is the emotional side of the mind. Man (mind) and woman (emotion) come together to produce sons and daughters, or more thoughts and emotions. The firstborn sons which God demands that the Israelites (little developed mental qualities) dedicate to God simply means that our first thoughts in all life should be dedicated to spiritual pursuit. When this happens, then the daughters of men (mind) become the righteous woman, meaning a healthy balance between the intellect and emotion-nature within us. Isn’t this the true meaning of Paul’s words when he states that we are the bride to be prepared for the bridegroom which is Christ? When our thoughts are captivated by personal desire (the serpent seducing Eve), the daughter or emotion within man becomes the harlot. The harlot symbolically cheats the intellect within each individual through adultery. Did not Eve do the same? Did she not symbolically drag the intellect (Adam) into the depths of sin, or separation from spiritual life of the spirit of God. This is the true meaning of the story of Adam and Eve. Adam, or the intellect, was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14), for by its very nature, pure intellect of a spiritual nature cannot be deceived. But when it becomes entangled with lower emotion, or personal desire, it is always deceived, because personal ambition is the very root and cause of God’s saying: Man’s heart (mind) is deceitful. Why? Because personal desire, when mired with thought, creates a separateness from God, which is missing the mark, or sin, the veil. This veil is what Paul means when he states now we see, or perceive mentally, through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12). Consider that when the fallen angels (higher minds from heaven) came unto the daughters (or emotions) of men before Noah’s flood. What was the result? That the imagination, or THOUGHTS of man, was evil, or veiled from the truth!

The garden of Eden is about the separation of mind and emotion through Adam and Eve, which come into conflict with one another after the desire mind (the serpent) tempts the emotional side of the mind to eat (perceive) the knowledge of good and evil. Paul understood very well that the concept of Good and Evil meant in genesis relates to karma, for he states, let God not be mocked, for a man shall reap what he sows. But this law of karma, represented in the Torah, has a redeeming quality, which is why Paul calls all of the law, or Torah, spiritual. This is also the reason why he saw Christ, or the Logos, within the Old Testament working alongside the Israelite delivery. For Paul, the Isrealite delivery is the mind liberated from captivity in Egypt, which represents mental bondage. So how does this law of karma have a redeeming quality? Because as a man reaps what he sows, he slowly becomes self-aware, through experience, of that which causes life or death. It is truly a schoolmaster to show us that the mind, when captivated by desire, brings death (or separation / sin) from the unity of God. The Israelites, once in the wilderness, desired to go back to that mental prison in Egypt because they had “flesh” to eat. The mind likes to stay where it is comfortable, even if it is a prison, because ignorance can be temporarily quite comforting. But even in that temporary comfort, death is the end result, for all the wages of sin (separation from God) are death.

God states, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. Ignorance, in all aspects of life, leads to destruction. The constant cycle of life and death, or, more accurately, birth and rebirth, is the destiny of the mind that has not conqueurored its desire nature, which is more subtle than any beast (passion of the body) in the field (the mental arena of life). The risen Christ at the end of the long mental journey signifies the release of the mind in physical birth and rebirth, and being able to explore higher conscious realms with a new type of spiritual body that hasn’t lost its true identity in the flesh.

So when Paul uses terms like man and woman, he is expressing the process whereby the mind of man once again unites Adam and Eve, and the conflict between intelligence and emotion can be finally resolved.

Let’s use an easy analogy. All married couples go through mental and emotional turmoil after the honeymoon stage is over, and the different currents of thought and personal desires of each spouse begin to clash. Why do they clash? Because each is an individual with different personal desires, interests, passions, beliefs, etc. What originally brought them together, personal desire, eventually becomes the very thing that tears them apart. The married couple that grows to maturity and remains a happy healthy unit can only do so by each one sacrificing his or her own personal desires for the other. Such a sacrificial love of action from the mental efforts of both parties brings a certain intellectual and emotional balance to the divided unit. Paul uses the natural concept of marriage to show how the same process happens within the individual. The risen Christ can only arise in the flesh when personal desires have been checked. Not only checked, but conquered. This is the long and arduous battle within the mind (the crucifixion of Golgotha, the skull / mind) or church, of the human being. For the church is not the body itself, but an aspect of the mind which is free from personal desires and pulls of our limiting and transient personalities. Personalities are formed through a complex web of thoughts and emotions in response to the environment and one’s own innate essence built up from former lives. It is very real to our current limited reality, but also transient and corrupt in the grander scheme in the unfoldment of consciousness. The mind, the immortal thinker, is a sojourner (the prodigal Son) in this land we call the body, and the personality which is formed in each life from the mind’s interaction of being in the body, must be transcended if the mind is to be released from its prison. Hebrews 11:8-10 esoterically illustrates this process which is also the allegory of the prodigal son:

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

The “tents” which are spoken of are the limited bodies which the immortal mind must endure its long process of adversity through, to learn and grow, and become self-consciously aware. This is why the original tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness was all called the “tent” of meeting for God and the people. The “city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God,” is all the mental faculties gathered together under the Christ, who sends the Holy Spirit, or wisdom, which transcends the limited nature of the bodies of man. When this is achieved, as Revelation states, “In him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of my God (permanent mental foundation), and he shall go no more out…” (the cycle of birth and death, birth and rebirth).

Now let’s get into the nitty gritty of why Paul really tells us that a woman must be silent in the church. First off realize that the church is your higher mind, the immortal aspect of your soul. It has to be constructed of Christ, and little by little, our conscious essence is added to it in each life that you live whenever a thought reaches heaven because it is void of personal desire. It is the body (faculties of the mind) that the Christ is responsible for constructing as it permeates every aspect of our being, both body and soul. The disciples being centered around Jesus is representative of the 12 mental faculties being “gathered” together by Christ to be turned into apostles (mature mental faculties) at the next stage of spiritual and mental growth. Thus, spiritually speaking, we progress from Israelites, to disciples, to apostles. The Apostle Paul, that outside apostle who received direct revelation from the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, is symbolic of the bridge that births Christ within the mind of man.

Now Paul tells us that a woman must be silent in the church because it is our emotions of personal desire (the woman – think Eve that succumbed to desire) that distorts the intellectual and rational nature of man’s thinking process. The heart of man is deceitful above all else, because the emotional woman (within man, as the unready bride of Christ) is always speaking loudly and drowning out the ability for true intellectual discernment, or truth of the spirit. This is also the great harlot of scripture, and it must be silenced because it always distorts the truth through its own personal desires. So when one does as Jesus states, and goes into the prayer closet and shuts the door for spiritual guidance, all emotional thought governing the intellect must be silenced! But in this act of the focused mind, the seeming paradox arises. Even though it takes mental effort to silence the emotions, the intellect, in this act, is itself laying down it’s life (silencing desire) for the woman, which in turn allows the harlot to be transformed into the higher emotions of love and unity, or the righteous woman! In such a sacrificial act of the intellect, through faith AND works, the intellect stops being in conflict with its emotional side. It leads in love, which brings unity between the two.

This is why Adam states a man shall leave his mother and father (the parents of karma and the law) and cleave unto his wife to make them one flesh. This is also why Jesus stated that in the beginning (before the fall in the garden), God meant for man to be ONE FLESH.

Please don’t misunderstand. I am not dividing genders like the dead letter of the law would have us believe. Each man and woman has an intellect and emotional nature within them.

Those who think of a very mature married couple can see how this plays out on our physical plane of life, which REFLECTS a higher spiritual truth about the MIND. When a man leads in a LOVING way, not sacrificing his own intellectual convictions, the woman’s desire naturally is to her husband (Genesis 3:16). Most women respect an intelligent man that leads and governs his own life with self control, inwardly being a rock, but expressing this firmness outwardly in a gentle, kind, and loving manner. Again, in the esoteric aspect, we are speaking spiritually about the MIND. But even in it’s exoteric expression, one can see the truth in this concept in some instances.

The process of marriage counseling is another good analogy to grasp the esoteric concept of Paul’s thinking process. When the mind becomes focused inward, it becomes meditative, and then through this inward self reflection process self awareness can trace its emotional-thought patterns which cause reaction to situations based on desire or raw passion, leading to conflict. The marriage counselor of couples therapy serves as a mediator to get the other spouse to perceive mentally where their own fault lies so that they can change and allow the relationship to heal. But man, as an individual, must have his or her own mediator, the Christ within, which is a process of rationalization at first, that grows into an intuition of truth as the higher emotion of love and unity, or reconciliation, happens within the mind. Slowly but surely, when meditation is done correctly in the church, the mind can begin a healing process, whereby its own internal conflict can be exposed, and the limited personality comes out of the dark and into the light of Christ. In this mental process, of defeating mental giants in the land (the mind or soul), that the process of losing one’s own life (the limited personality) for the sake of Christ’s life, that Christ as the head of the church rises within the mind. Jesus stated, a man must lose his own life in order to gain life (Matthew 10:39). Man’s personality is simply a cut-off entity from the supreme wisdom of God. It is a false entity that is at enmity with God. It is the Cain within, as Cain represents the personality, but the process of going within enables the Abel within to offer correct sacrifice that is pleasing to God – and these are the aspirations towards a higher truth.

A few more thoughts. It has been said that the intellect without intuition is blind, but intuition without the intellect is empty. This is a crucial concept which the philosopher Immauel Kant reintroduced into an intellectual stream of society born of reason. I say “reintroduced,” because nothing is new under the sun, and it was a foundational tenant, though expressed in complicated esoteric terms, from ages past. But the point is this: both intellect and intuition must be brought together in union, each part of the whole united to function properly which brings the light of wisdom into the soul or mind. This is the function of Christ as head of the church. Christ is in the entire process, and becomes the resurrected Christ when that inner power and united faculties of the mind is risen back to paradise, or a state of heavenly union.

Just as Christ is an emblem of Divine Wisdom (a feminine function relating to intuition reaped from the womb / matrix / body / Christ IN flesh), the serpent in the Garden of Eden is also a divine emblem. And it can be properly understood esoterically only in its relation to the Logos in the grand unfoldment of its function. Jesus stated, “As Moses raised the serpent in the wilderness (the battleground of defeating mental giants), so must the son of man (mind) be lifted up” (John 3:14). The serpent caused the fall of mind, but allegorically it is really no fall. It illustrates the truth that the mind was no longer united with God because the desire of the flesh (the serpent mind which crawls on the ground, earth, lower soul) put the intellect and emotional nature in conflict with one another, resulting in the “lower mind” which is that which is operating through the body and its animal passions and desire nature. The higher mind, or the church, must be built. When one’s personal desires are sacrificed, the serpent mind can be “lifted,” or transformed / regenerated back up to its proper place. The esoteric interpretation of Mark 16:18 is the key: one of the signs that shall follow a believer is that he or she will “lift” up serpents. The original Greek word there implies a raising of the desire-mind to its original condition of purity before the fall. It is the serpent mind (or personal desires based on conflicting thought and emotion / personal desire) which is “cursed” to crawl on the ground. This means a mind operating in the body, or lower soul of man, where it is cursed to die because it is imprisoned by its captivating carnality. And now we can also truly understand the depth and meaning of Buddha’s second noble truth, which is the same as the Bible’s New Testament: “All suffering comes from personal selfish desire.”

The LOGOS of John chapter one I believe reveals this to us: the sacrificial Lamb that came down from heaven to oversee the rational order of creation by becoming involved in it, even in it’s separated and sinful condition. This is the real meaning of Jesus being sacrificed since the foundation of creation, and visiting the depths of hell, the body, or the grave, sheol. This is also the esoteric interpretation of that scripture in Acts which states that the body of Jesus did not endure corruption because he fulfilled the spiritual law which frees all bodies from corruption. Remember, that through the LOGOS everything was made in heaven and earth. What we see as evil or good, God sees differently. God made both evil and good it states in Isaiah. Evil is not some entity called the devil, but it is the tool God uses through karmic results to bring man to the knowledge of the Christ when he or she CHOOSES life. It is the same schoolmaster which God used to reveal to Job the truth of God’s nature. Before Job was tempted, he only knew God through the hearing of the ear, or lower mind knowledge. But after Satan is used, Job goes through the process of evil to come to a more full and complete knowledge of God by the end of the book. The three friends who accused him esoterically symbolize the three bodies of the lower mental, astral, and physical nature. When one understands this deep esoteric teaching, many of the seemingly contradictions of the dead letter of scripture will be cleared up for you. For the immortal thinker that you truly are is not the body, astral / emotional mind of desire, incubated in a physical body – Job’s three friends. But it is Job, the individuality itself! As is Noah and Daniel of scripture, which explains this one great spiritual revelation:

“Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it [physical life], they should deliver their own souls BY THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS, saith the LORD GOD” (Ezekiel 14:14). By understanding the esoteric nature of this scripture of Ezekiel, one may understand the entire Bible from beginning to end in the bigger picture, and the risen Christ within, which must be birthed within you through travail (the karma of spiritual law / TORAH). For you are the immortal thinker, the I AM THAT I AM, trapped in a physical, emotional, and lower analytical mind.

Blessings!

Comparing Prometheus and Biblical Characters Continued…

November 3, 2020 by Joshua Tilghman 16 Comments

We now begin our second post in the series of Prometheus and Biblical characters. In the first post, we provided some foundational thought on the concept of the Logos. Metaphysically, we concluded it is the life-principle of spirit manifested physically as God’s garments. Mr. W. R. Inge, a professor of Divinity at Cambridge, once summed up this ancient philosophical concept of the Logos as used by Philo of Alexandria:

“It seems to have been a name for the rational self-evolution of the universe, to be apprehended by the human mind which is capable of identifying itself with it….Philo’s Logos is a God who reveals himself, in contrast with a God that hides himself.”

I am providing Mr. Inge’s quote above so that we understand that I am not limiting the idea of the Logos to spirit manifesting in the physical universe only. I mean that the physical universe is it’s outermost expression. Physical matter is the expression of spirit in its most outer form. Put another way, it is God’s most outer garment. But to reflect again on Mr. Inge’s thoughts, it is the self-evolution of the universe from it’s highest to lowest octave in the mind. Remember, the New Testament writer, who identifies Christ with the Logos, also states that all things were made by Him, and the author of Colossians also states that all things both visible (God’s most outer garments) and invisible (God’s inner garments) were created through Christ. Thus, the unfolding Logos is the entire metaphysical and physical universe being expressed through that which we might dub, the self evolution of the divine mind, i.e., the God that reveals himself by himself through us.

We are now going to switch gears and explore Satan, Lucifer, and the Serpent. We are also going to talk some about Adam and Eve. We have to set a proper foundation here too in order to understand that the Prometheus story allegorically symbolizes the same, culminating in the Christ principle through the suffering even Prometheus endured in the Greek mythologies. So bear with me 🙂

The Serpent

The serpent of scripture is an ancient universal symbol. The allegorical part it plays in the Eden drama reveals the nature of the divine mind involving and evolving from the mind of man. It also brilliantly unveils the psychological state in which most of mankind finds itself today. But we can’t fully understand the symbol of the serpent until we also understand the symbol of Adam and Eve.

Philo, the ancient Jewish philosopher mentioned above, once stated:

“God, when first of all he made the intellect called it Adam.”

In order to get a true grip on this as it relates to Adam in the Garden of Eden BEFORE Eve was created out of him, let’s imagine what a pure intellect would be like. Along these lines, imagine pure intellect, unimpeded by any kind of emotion or desire (before Eve). What would it be like?

Most importantly, it would experience no internal conflict. Man’s mind today is bombarded in the decision making process by a myriad of sensory input, his or her accumulated emotion, and divergence of thought. But a purely intellectual nature itself would be free, and in direct accordance with divine law. It’s every expression would be less of an individual decision, but more of just an expression of itself unimpeded by anything. In fact, it wouldn’t be very conscious. We could call it something close to perfection, because every action would be in the perfect alignment with God’s law. But it would have no depth or breadth, so in another way, although we might call it perfect, we could also call it very limited in self-experience and true self-consciousness. Although it might act perfectly in accordance with God’s laws, it certainly wouldn’t have much of a personality. In fact, it wouldn’t have anything we could call a personality at all because it would be so purely logical that every expression would be based on what is true to its nature. Almost like a computer program that flawlessly executes it’s programming. Sure, it’s flawless, but it lacks self-awareness and true knowledge of itself, and the wisdom gained through experience in a world of duality.

So what is it that adds an extra layer of depth and breath of this pure intellect (or logic machine)? It is the emotional nature moved by desire (e – “motion”).

This is where Eve, the mother of all living, comes into the story. Eve is called woman, because she comes out of man (or mind). There is a hint of separation here in the mind. At first it is untainted. This separation is good. It represents the faintest beginnings of the mind that can begin to explore its greater potential in the act of self-awareness. This dual nature of the mind now has more of an experience to operate in, a potential to draw conclusions about itself in a self-experiential manner which is different then its more undifferentiated aspect.

The phrase “mother of all living” has a very important esoteric significance, and gives us the understanding of the symbolic nature of Eve, or that which she will become after the fall is complete.

Eve symbolizes the emotion nature united to the mental nature of the lower mind. I will explain the “lower mind” soon, because it is not considered the lower mind until after its fall. But when God states that man (mind) had no help-meet in life (Eve), it means that man (mind) had no depth and breath of life and self consciousness. The mind’s “eyes” were not opened yet. It had no e – “motion.” Emotion is the beginning of the life principle, because it drives experience from desire. It is the attraction and repulsion of opposites. It is, in a metaphysical sense, experience and motion, or life itself in the human body. In its lower (tempted) nature, it draws the mind of mental thought into the Maya of separation and continued unconsciousness, or decision based on desire instead of will. Notice how the serpent tempted Eve, not Adam. Once the serpent tempted Eve, only then could Adam be tempted, because it is only through desire the mental principle is tempted. However, in its higher nature, the higher emotions are positive for the mind, and adds to it true self-consciousness, wisdom, and understanding.

For spirit to create and unfold into man as the first Adam, it must involve into mind and emotion. It must contain the ability to think, but also to feel. It must produce thought, initially with desire, which gives motion to the thought. It gives a deeper sense of self-consciousness and “I” to the thought. It brings more awareness of separateness to thought. The emotional nature united with the mind principle becomes “the mother of all living.”

But there is a problem. This separateness, this “I,” becomes trapped in the lower aspect of it’s dual nature because of the more separateness it is experiencing. At least at first. How is this shown metaphysically in the first few chapters of Genesis?

It is shown through the allegory of the serpent.

The serpent causes spiritual death because it symbolically represents the force of desire in the mind. This force of desire is expressed as temptation to the fruit pleasing to the eye. By fruit we mean everything that engages and tempts (attracts) all the lower aspects of mind and emotion. Spiritual death occurs because the mind experiences a separateness of existence from the rest of the universe (i.e. God). It is still one with God, but this separate “I” doesn’t KNOW it through the direct experience it once had when God walked in the cool of the Garden with Adam. And thus we find most of mankind in this spiritual death. However, through the fall of mind by the serpent, mankind achieved a physical body and the temple of the lower nature is now complete.

“And unto Adam also and unto his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21).

This skin is not the skin of animals (that god killed) to give to man as we have been taught. It is symbolic of the flesh itself, all of your physical temple-body. It is a metaphor for the completion of the human-body-temple, in which the indwelling spirit comes to inhabit, evolved by itself as it further differentiated itself. And please understand. This allegory isn’t about an anthropomorphic being clothing Adam, it is the history of how the mind fell into the lowest plane of matter. The story of Prometheus, we will see later, is exactly the same!

More on the Serpent

While the serpent symbolically represents the desire-mind on one level, it also depicts the truth of karma, for the mind must reap what it sows. Spirit’s slow descent into matter reaps a body-temple for this new aspect of self-consciousness to begin exploring in the arena of life (a complicated web of maya, or duality). For spirit to evolve into a more self-conscious being, the mind had to fall (create) a proper vessel for this new kind of expression. The human-body-temple, with its nerve centers, it’s highly advanced brain, and its complex array of endocrine glands allow emotion and thought to express itself in ways that can lead to a greater sense of self-consciousness when thrust in the maya of experiences it is confronted with.

“…the man is now become as one of us, to KNOW good from evil…” (Gen 3:22).

More accurately expressed, “The mind is now become as one of the Elohim, to KNOW opposites, and the potential for true self-consciousness.”

In other words, the mind, through it’s new temple, now has the ability to choose the path towards Godhood. Yes, mankind will now experience pain and suffering along the way, but he has the ability to choose, for:

“…the eyes of them both were opened…” (Gen 3:7).

Jesus alludes to this in Luke 24:31. The disciples did not know the risen Christ, but after they ate (metaphorically) what Jesus provided their eyes were opened and they recognized him. After Adam and Eve ate what the serpent tempted them with their eyes were also opened. However, Adam and Eve’s eyes were only opened physically, the lower mental and emotional nature, while the disciples eyes were opened spiritually, to the second Adam, or Christ within themselves.

Another way to put it would be that the Mind has now been imbued with the potential for choice, or self-conscious development. To do so, the mind will have to claw its way back to the Tree of Life through tilling the ground (disciplining the body temple of thought, emotion, and sensation) amongst the thorns (the trials of life) of the ground (the body temple) to yield its fruit (it’s potential of newfound self-consciousness).

The allegory of mankind being kicked out of Eden means through physical suffering he will have to learn how to discipline his lower nature as not to be the servant of it, but rather it’s ruler.

And how does one do this?

Jesus made it clear as day. Please pay very close to attention, as it relates to all that we have discussed:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up…” (John 3:14).

Meaning, Moses, as the law-giver and symbol of the moral nature in man, which had to come first, begins through correct thought, action, and speech, the process of raising the serpent from the curse of the dust of the ground upwards for healing. In other words, following the universal law of karma (of reaping and sowing), the free will choices that man now has can either lead to a continued sense of separateness and pain, or it can begin to choose the path of liberation from Maya (the illusion of separateness created by the dual mind) through self-conscious liberation.

But that’s not all! The verse spoken by Jesus right before him mentioning the serpent brings the entire meaning of what happened originally in the garden into crystal clarity:

“And no man ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man which is IN heaven” (John 3:13).

In other words, no man can ascend up to heaven (blissful state of peace and unity of mind) until one has first descended down into earth, just as his example shows us!

By son of man, Jesus means son of MIND, the universal divine mind, which “came down from heaven” (the fall of mind into matter), in order to work it’s way back up again. Here we have the allegory of Adam and Eve repeated in these two verses by Jesus.

Also, remember where Jesus tells the disciples that in the beginning, God made them (separate mankind and minds) both male and female (a unity). This means the state of the mind before Adam and Eve. This unity was just Adam.

When Moses raised the serpent, all the people who were bitten by the fiery serpent (self-consciousness, the spark of the inner immortal thinking principle), became healed. In other words, even though the Israelites had this fiery spark of the immortal thinking principle within them, because of selfishness and being controlled by the lower nature, they were sick! They were utterly lost and separated (sin) from their own indwelling divine nature.

Jesus also teaches us the same path by alluding to the lawgiver, Moses, who, again, the law of God teaches us that we reap what we sow. Remember, the Torah of God is not very far from you Moses tells the people, it is near to you, it is IN YOU! (Duet. 30:14).

So the path to liberation, to uplifting the mind from the world of Maya, is threefold:

Service to humanity…developing the higher emotional qualities that lead to unity, not more separation.
Discipline, by developing the unlimited power of will given to the steady mind which has the ability to portray thoughts that are uplifting, noble, loving, peaceful, and intelligent. Meditation is a part of this path to tame the mind and thoughts which run wild by the lower nature.
Study and the further development of the mind, especially upon metaphysical subjects that show the nature of God and reality is Echad (ONE). Studying subjects such as history, math, the sciences, philosophy, etc. is also highly beneficial towards improving one’s mental focus and the intellect.

In the vast ocean of the reincarnating ego, or the immortal thinking principle within, any individual can be working on all of the above in combination, or focusing on one more in particular. It depends on that soul alone, and at different stages in life a soul will probably oscillate between them. The point is balance. A towering intellect can become prideful and more separate. But a towering intellect that incorporates the first and second principles stated above will use that intellect for good and not evil. There must be a balance brought back to the mind, to achieve an equilibrium. Intellect devoid of the heart remains dead. The heart without the guiding principle of the intellect remains undeveloped. The mind needs to incorporate the heart, and the heart needs to be guided by the higher intellect (combined with intuition), which can only become perfect intuition alongside the heart.

Remember, the scripture tells us that as a man “thinketh” in his heart, so is he. As he “thinketh,” so IS HE. Let that sink in.

The word man comes from the term manas, which means the thinker. In esoteric doctrine the thinker (not the thoughts themselves, but that which is able to think), is the immortal reincarnating principle. The great will power to do, speak, and think that which is right and pleasing before the Lord comes forth as the Christ (Logos) within when the mind is transformed and renewed. If one does not develop this will power inherent in the Logos, then the mind is carried off by the tempting serpent which is cursed to crawl on the ground, in the dust (remain mired in the mud of the lower nature body temple, swayed only by it’s untrained passional nature). This mind is always barred from the tree of life by the flaming sword which is double-edged, and it crucifies the Christ nature anew.

Scripture also strongly correlates man with trees (Psalms 1:3). Why would man be compared to a tree? The esoteric meaning of the tree is man on all the planes of being. It has its roots in the ground (the lower nature body-temple), it’s trunk above the ground in the air, and its branches higher in the air (towards heaven) that soak up sunlight and convert this light into life-given energy. We can take this idea further and relate the idea of trees to the mind of man, or his very soul, which is a mind, that exists in the same duality that the tree metaphysical does. This is true for the Garden of Eden as well. The two trees in the Garden (although they are really one tree as they both are in the midst of the garden) symbolize which direction the mind of man gravitates towards. The tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil, is a tree symbolizing knowledge, or the ability to know, through experience. Why does the spirit incarnate in matter? It is to build and evolve the soul, or the mind, through experience, to which the mind then comes to KNOW. The Tree of Life, which is also in the midst of the Garden, is the mind which KNOWS no longer through good and evil, or the comparison and contrasting of opposites, but comes to KNOW, after its long journey and pilgrimage, the source of life (the Logos) itself.

The serpent is more cunning than any “beast” of the field. Desire is just that. It is not more cunning because it is smarter, it is more cunning because it is the grand trickster, the grand illusionists, that convinces the mind to participate with it. It tricks the mind into separation from its parent source, so that it melds (and identifies) with desire instead of being the ruler (WILL POWER) of desire. Thus the great truth. God tells Adam to rule over his wife. Esoterically, this means that the intellectual principle must guide the lower passionate nature of man, and when done properly, the emotional aspect returns an emotional maturity to the intellect. It is the mother life principle in action upon the intellect. The intellect can only sacrifice itself by being the guiding principle by loving the emotional nature which came out of it, and then the emotional nature provides true life back to the intellectual nature.

It is obvious that Genesis is telling us an allegory of how the mind received an addition to its potential, i.e., the ability to reason by comparing and contrasting opposites, or the ability to choose this or that. Before the fall, the soul wasn’t in a physical temple or body with a physical brain organ containing the prefrontal cortex that can reason. The soul had a different kind of intelligence, an intelligence that wasn’t choosing this or that, but worked with an intelligence that wasn’t so differentiated. The soul didn’t have to make choices because it walked with the spirit of God in the Garden, meaning, the soul, or mind, had not yet evolved it’s most outer garment.

Lucifer

Lucifer is a bit of a tricky subject because of the emotions the name alone itself can invoke in religiously-steeped doctrine and dogmatism. To a certain extent we have all been socially conditioned in this way. So it is understandable. I do not have the time to write about how the concept of Lucifer has been wrongly interpreted, so I will give only some brief revelations.

Jesus tells us that he saw Lucifer, the great dragon, kicked out from heaven…as lightning! He is alluding to the same story which the allegory of the Garden of Eden teaches us, again!

Heaven is a state of bliss and unity of mind. Lucifer, which means the “light bearer,” which is the immortal thinker aspect, was kicked out of union or bliss, and cast to the earth. In a sense, Lucifer is the first Adam as expressed through his son Cain, our lower nature as opposed to Abel. Cain and Abel are allegories of the two natures within man, or the offspring of mind and emotion expressed through the desire principle with a hint of aspiration for higher thoughts and love (Abel) which can be pleasing still to god. God tells Cain, you have the choice to do right, but sin is at thy door. In other words, separation from me, through the mind, is before you. What will you choose?

Lightning, when hitting wood, sparks fire. This fire or flame symbolizes the thinking principle of man, which is a potential in unity, but burns bright when cast into a body temple. This is what the serpent metaphysically understood also gave to man. “Their eyes were opened, and they became as the Elohim.” But at first it is still in a fallen state. But it now has the ability to gain true self-consciousness and awareness. Lucifer is also called the bright and morning star, curiously, just as Jesus is alluded to in Revelation.

Lucifer becomes the Satan (adversary) principle when the mind is not disciplined and expressed through will, but subject to desire. It is then an enmity with God, and subject to the serpent cursed to crawl on the ground. It can then and does manifest itself as an adversary to God and our higher God-given nature. Religion has chosen to cast these allegories as two anthropomorphic beings outside of us instead of realizing the inherent meanings within us.

Even Jesus, after he was filled with the spirit, was driven into the wilderness to be tempted by this adversary, or principle that is at enmity with God. Notice something important here. Jesus had no choice. Even after being filled with the very spirit of life, he was DRIVEN, as if by force, to face the temptations of the adversarial mind. He overcomes the adversarial nature within him through strict discipline of the mind, which all of his temptations symbolize when studied carefully. Remember, the moment of the crucifixion happens at Golgotha, which means place of the skull. The battle ultimately culminates in the area of grey matter underneath your skull 🙂

This is all I will say for Lucifer, Satan, and the Serpent now. While I originally intended to get to Prometheus in this second post of the series, I realize it would be better to end part two here and continue with Prometheus in part three. Please feel free to share any thoughts you have in the comment section below for further engagement of what was discussed above. Oftentimes you at the SOS community bring so much more clarity through your comments.

Blessings.

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Jesus, Peter, and the Fish: Esoteric Biblical Psychology 101

August 5, 2020 by Joshua Tilghman 21 Comments

Me near the Appalachian Trail: August 2, 2020.

The fish has been an important Christian symbol for almost two thousand years. Much like the lion, the serpent, the dove, cattle, the bull, and the lamb, the fish is emphasized in several places in both the Old and New Testaments. It is easy to gloss over it’s symbolic meaning, but when studied, I believe it provides a master key to unlock a large portion of scriptural symbolism.

In order to properly understand the symbol of the fish, we will have to juxtapose it with other important symbols and see how they all fit together. But first I want to introduce Gaskell’s definition of fish:

Fish of the Sea and Lakes

“A symbol of facts of the lower experience, namely, concepts, percepts, ideas, feelings, emotions.”

We can extend the definition above to any external knowledge and belief systems. It is the knowledge that we assimilate through the senses, including what our parents taught us, what we learn in school, from our peers, books, and our political and religious systems. These are the fish that swim in the lakes and seas of our subconscious mind.

It is not that knowledge is bad. Quite the contrary. Knowledge is assimilated and analyzed through the mind and is necessary to develop the intellect. The problem comes when we identify ourselves with that knowledge, and take pride in it. Jesus rebuked the Pharisee for this reason. The Pharisee is like the rich man (lots of Torah intellectual knowledge), but was actually destitute and poor in spirit, or lacking in wisdom and understanding (the spirit and essence of the Torah).

How do we, as spiritual aspirants, avoid this trap?

Genesis chapter one tells us that the soul (higher mind, or heart) is to have dominion over knowledge. Remember, fish are the accumulated ideas, emotions, and belief systems the lower mind has acquired.

“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17).

The death described is an allegory for how consciousness becomes identified with the thought and the emotion itself instead of remaining aware of it as just a temporary experience.

Mind has the ability to consciously express itself as a complete soul unit, which is the allegorical Tree of Life.

Let’s move on to those scriptures which teach us how this process happens allegorically. As we’ll see, Jesus aims to transform Peter (the lower mind) to a fisher of men (the mind as a complete soul unit).

Without Christ, Peter (the lower mind) cast his net but cannot catch fish, meaning he does not yet have dominion over his own thoughts. But with the help of Christ, the spiritual energizing factor of the higher mind, Peter catches an abundance of fish! This signifies the higher mind having complete dominion and control over the mind’s lower vehicle of thought and emotion. Christ in this function is the divine life that is seeking to become ever more active in the soul (higher mind) of man. Peter, the natural man, must evolve. At a certain stage of spiritual evolution, we are all Peter in need of the spiritual influx of Christ, that anointing which can only operate in it’s full function through the power of the Holy Spirit, which IS the fullness of Christ’s unlimited power poured out from heaven into the mind. We’re also going to learn that at a certain stage of spiritual evolution, one of the twelves faculties of all mankind is a Jonah (limited lower mind), that becomes Simon Barjona (Peter), where Christ is recognized and the lower mind realizes, through a self aware process of cognition, its own limitation and the very great need for Christ to become more activated.

Peter and the Fish

Let’s look at Luke chapter five. Jesus is at the lake of Gennesaret preaching truth to the masses. He even climbs in Simon Peter’s ship and asks him to cast off from shore so he can teach from there. But when he is finished teaching to the masses (symbolic of the outer court), he turns his attention to the inner court, those nearest to him (specifically the faculty of mind that Peter signifies). The esoteric scene is now set to bring a plethora of spiritual concepts together!

From former blog posts you may remember that Peter signifies the lower mind; the mind that must be transformed, or renewed. How can we be sure that Peter signifies the lower mind? Jesus makes it clear when he rebukes Peter for trying to save him from Roman soldiers in Matthew 16:23:

“…for thou MINDEST not the things of God, but the things of men.”

Not only did Jesus also refer to him as Satan earlier (the momentary adversary of the higher mind), but the Apostle Paul rebuked him in Galatians as well for following the letter of the law. As we’ll see shortly, the natural man (lower mind) is imprisoned through its own knowledge. This imprisonment is separation / sin from the natural state of consciousness: identification with awareness, not thoughts themselves.

How so?

The lower mind, in its early stages of spiritual evolution, is veiled from the indwelling spirit. The lower mind is full of error because it identifies with beliefs, opinions, and ideas (it’s accumulated knowledge). This is Peter’s condition as he meets Jesus. As we begin the spiritual journey, we are ALL a Peter. But there is something special about Peter. While he symbolizes the lower mind, it is the lower mind which has evolved the capacity to recognize the indwelling Christ, and that it is this Lord that infuses the lower mind with its spiritual power. Let’s return to Luke chapter five to see this Biblical truth unveiled.

In this chapter of Luke, Jesus is the higher self. He climbs into the “ship” of Peter on the “lake.” The lake, or waters, represent the lower mind which is easily stirred up by the external influences of our life and the knowledge it has accumulated. The lake is the astral waters within the mind, where thoughts, emotions, ideas, and concepts are constantly moving within the lower mind’s illusory nature. Just as wind causes waves and currents and changing lake and sea beds, so do emotions, ideas, and concepts churn around in the lower mind of our subconscious affecting the sea and lake beds of our personalities.

The “ship” represents the lower mind floating on the lake of our subconscious. We all have a ship in our minds too. It is the aspect of your mind where Christ expands it’s spiritual influence. Jesus, the higher self, is within Peter’s ship. The esoteric scene that is about to unfold reveals how the higher self makes itself known to the lower mind that recognizes and accepts it’s authority.

Notice what happens:

“Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught” (Luke 5:4).

The higher self leads Peter, or the lower mind, to cast its “net” into the “deep.” The mental qualities of the lower self have to be gathered together and “caught” at the command of the higher self. There’s a lot of accumulated stuff swimming around in our subconscious minds. This reveals the idea that all of our thoughts, emotions, ideas, opinions, and belief systems have to be captured and directed by the influence of indwelling Christ. We know that this happens through the power of conscious thought in the lower mind, because Jesus gave Peter the “keys” to unlock the kingdom within. In other words, it all begins with the conscious input of correct thought into the subconscious. The lower mind must condition itself to the influence of the higher mind. Let’s continue with Luke chapter 5:

“And Simon answered unto him, Master, we have toiled all night, and have taken nothing. Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.” (Luke 5:5).

The lower mind admits its confusion. It fishes for the truth in the knowledge accumulated in the subconscious, but to no avail. The lower mind cannot find the truth within its own thoughts, opinions, and belief systems. That is because the truth cannot be found through our external experience of reality and the knowledge acquired there. It cannot be found through the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or through the world of duality, which is a constant changing illusory environment. Yes, we can learn lots of facts and ideas, but they are just that. What good do facts and ideas and opinions of the external world do for the inner man? Sure, they can bring more knowledge (riches), but they cannot impart life that is beyond that knowledge.

Let’s continue and reread the last statement of verse five again:

“…Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.”

Peter is willing to test the power of the higher mind through faith, and put his trust in something other than his own facts, opinions, ideas, and beliefs. This shows the willingness of that natural mind that is able to take a leap of faith and trust in the higher over the lower.

“And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake” (Luke 5:6).

The casting of the net is symbolic of man’s lower mind that toils within itself to find answers. It represents the dark period of our lives, when we aren’t satisfied with the knowledge that the world can give us, even as we try over and over to figure out life based on external circumstances. It is the mind’s absence of light (intuition) in all it’s thoughts, opinions, emotions, etc. Knowledge remains dark until it is illuminated by the higher mind.

Jesus said when the eye becomes single the entire body is filled with light! A great secret to understanding this process is that knowledge is not bad, but that knowledge must be transformed also into understanding. The rich man is destitute and poor until his riches (knowledge) is illuminated by the indwelling Christ. It is not the knowledge itself that is important, it is understanding the cause and effect behind all facts, opinions, and ideas of this world that true understanding is achieved. Then knowledge is transformed into understanding (silver) and wisdom (gold). The union of this process is what’s known as love. The love aspect is known as higher emotions, because higher emotion is the vehicle of unity (non-judgment) between different ideas, opinions, and concepts. And it can work with the intellect. One who perceives with the single eye (pineal gland) unites love and wisdom, which is wisdom and love united in the higher mind.

That power of control over our thoughts is the beginning of the birthing of Christ in the mind. Let’s see how this works in the rest of Luke chapter five:

“When Simon peter saw it [the multitude of fish that Jesus’ command caught], he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

I cannot emphasize how important this scripture is in encompassing the entire spiritualization process that begins in the lower mind. Why did Peter recognize Christ as Lord here? What was the catalyst? It was the catching of the fish! Nothing more and nothing less. That which the lower mind toils for, but cannot succeed in finding truth through, until the lower mind recognizes it is the Christ mind which has the ability to turn knowledge into understanding.

This signifies that the natural mind realizes it’s sin (that it is separated from the higher self, Christ), and that it is only the Christ through the higher mind that can make sin, or separateness recognizable, and heal the mind itself. It is the power of the indwelling Christ that illuminates this knowledge to us, not from an external process, but through an inner one. And how is this accomplished?

Let’s look at another Gospel. We have a similar version of this story in John chapter 21, with a few key differences. Here, Jesus commanded them to cast the net on the “right” side of the ship. This means that the mind ceases to analyze external thoughts, opinions, and ideas from the left brain. It goes within, to the right side, which is towards the east, the rising sun. Remember, Jesus sits at the right hand of the father and is the illuminating light of consciousness.

John chapter 21 also states that Peter caught 153 in the net, and this time the net does not break.

153…

1 + 5 + 3 =9

Nine, according to Gaskell:

“The number three is the number of perfection and completeness. Nine, which is three squared, refers to the attainment of perfection on the three lower planes.”

In Luke, it was early in Jesus’ ministry and the disciples were undisciplined and still being gathered. In John we have a spiritual evolution of MIND in the text. It is after Jesus’ ministry on earth (the lower nature and mind). Peter is the one that brings the net of fish up, but there is something different about the natural mind now. It has walked with the indwelling Christ for some time, and it is ready to become the “evolved personality.” This is why Jesus asks Peter if he loves him three times (three signifying the discipline of all three qualities of the lower nature). The natural mind has finally gathered together it’s mental qualities and is ready for the next stage of spiritual growth on the mental plane. It now has the ability to bring the lower mind under disciplined control. Nine then refers to the three perfected of the lower plane. The three are the lower mental, emotional, and physical aspects of man. The mind has gained discipline over all three: sensations, emotions, and thoughts. The mind now has dominion over the fish of the lake and the sea!

Of course this does not mean that the lower mind is perfect. Peter will continue to make mistakes, which is why Paul rebukes him later on. The Apostle Paul symbolizes a further evolution of the mind, which is the actual birthing of Christ in the mind. This process follows the lower mind which has taken control over its course of thought, speech, and action through conscious will power. And this process is what is meant through concentration of the mind, which is a discipline of the thoughts that precedes true meditation.

Fish as a symbol of the Old Testament

The Old Testament version of this healing in the lower mind takes place in Ezekiel. Before we proceed there are some things we should discuss about the Book of Ezekiel. Similar to the Gospel of John, which goes deeper in the esoteric sense than the rest of the Gospels, Ezekiel does the same. In fact, the Book of Ezekiel almost didn’t make it into the Biblical canon, and many Jewish boys were hindered from studying it until they reached a certain mature age. In certain Jewish mystical traditions it was forbidden completely to the uninitiated. Why? Because it is a highly esoteric book containing concepts that require a certain spiritual maturity to understand.

First a scripture about the healing waters which flow from underneath the altar within the Holy of Holies.

“And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of FISH, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live wither the river cometh” (Ezekiel 47:9).

This river of living water coming from man’s innermost being, the higher self, is the same idea taught through Jesus in the New Testament. Remember the woman at the deep well who wanted water? Jesus told her the water from that well would make her thirst again. Jesus tells her that he could provide the water of truth that would keep her from thirsting again. But in Ezekiel, notice that this river of water heals the very great multitude of fish. Another example of the subconscious and conscious mind healed through the unity of wisdom and love?

Ezekiel’s temple by the way, with all it’s passages and structures, is a map of the human brain 🙂 The altar in the Holy of Holies, at the very center of the temple (brain), is the pineal gland again.

Simon son of Bar Jonah

I wanted to conclude by showing how awesome the entire Bible fits together and the continuity between the Old and New Testaments. Notice how after Peter recognizes the Christ as the Son of the Father, Christ states:

“…blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood (the natural mind) hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father (spirit) which is in heaven (the realm of the higher mind)” Matthew 16:17.

Jesus is referring to Peter as Simon Barjona because he is associating him with the son of Jonah of the Old Testament. Not a literal son, but the son of the soul in evolutionary progression, in much the same way that John the Baptist was an evolved Elijah who had to come.

Jonah of the Old Testament was cast in the sea and swallowed by a great fish. Do you see the similarities here? Jonah is the natural mind in a period of evolution as well. Peter is the more advanced natural mind who finally is ready to recognize the Christ, while Jonah is symbolic of the mind that is meant to eventually be consummated by the Christ, which is accomplished through Peter’s actions finally. It is interesting that at the end of the Book of Jonah, Jonah is still quite angry with the Ninevites. God gives him a slight rebuke at the end, and then it is over. The Book of Jonah is only four short chapters, and it ends on a very sad note. God questions Jonah at the end and points out the fact that the Ninevites are spared because they can’t tell their left hand from their right. This refers to the mixed up state of the mind that is still quite divided. I don’t have time here to delve into all the symbols of Jonah here, but if you think hard enough, I bet you can find many more similarities in the story.

One more side note to tie in an extra knot: Jesus said no sign would be given except that Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the whale/fish. This is the evolution of mind, and the stories of Jonah and Peter unveil the spiritual evolution process of just one of the faculties of mind in conjunction with the other eleven (disciples). The Bible is so perfectly connected and reveals a deep psychological process of the mind. If only modern psychologists began to see the validity of the Biblical stories in this light, the Bible would become more authoritative than anything Freud and others have accomplished.

I hope this article has given you some food for thought.

Blessings.

Why Jesus said He Came to Bring Division

July 2, 2020 by Joshua Tilghman 21 Comments

In Luke chapter twelve, it is recorded that Jesus said he came, not to bring peace on earth, but division; even in one’s own household, two against three and three against two. In this post we will unveil the esoteric meaning. We will also dismantle the misconceptions of its exoteric interpretation that has promulgated in religious circles from this portion of Luke, which, ironically, has led to actual division of families and humanity at large. I have actually dealt with this subject before many years ago on the blog, but this post will offer some more depth and some other corroborating scriptures as well.

Let’s look at the specific verse in detail. Jesus states:

“Suppose ye that I have come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three” (Luke 12:51-52).

Some religious leaders and commentators of the past have believed this verse means that Jesus is foretelling the split that will come from individual families over believers (Christians) and non-believers (non-Christians). While this sometimes is the natural outcome of individuals who delve into the spiritual journey, it has nothing to do with what Jesus is referring to. The danger in this kind of thinking is that when this happens, certain individuals believe they are justified in the divisive outcome because “Jesus said it,” so everything is happening as it should. It can reinforce the “me” vs “other” mentality. This is sad, because anyone embarking on the inward spiritual journey to Christ should never use Jesus’ words as a justification for any kind of division or strife between human beings. Rather, we should love others as ourselves.

So what did Jesus really mean? To answer that, we must unveil the symbols, for the truth of all scripture is veiled beneath the literal / outward interpretation.

The “one house” of Jesus’ statement is not a building. House refers to one of your vehicles (bodies) of consciousness. In this specific instance, Jesus was referring to the house which is the vehicle of thought itself. I will explain this in more in detail shortly. But first I want to direct you to another scripture by the Apostle Paul which will set the correct foundation for a proper, enriched understanding.

Hebrews 4:12 states:

“For the WORD of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the DIVIDING asunder of SOUL and SPIRIT, and of the joints and marrow, and is the discerner of THOUGHTS and INTENTS of the HEART.”

Paul speaks of the word, or LOGOS, that divides the soul and spirit of man. The Greek word used for “dividing asunder” portrays the idea of a partition. This partition illustrates the dual nature of the man’s mind. Try to think of the mind as the center, or partition between two natures. These two natures are your soul and spirit. The thoughts of man can gravitate toward desire, through the soul, or, by will, our thoughts can be carefully guarded and chosen to reflect the spirit.

In our scripture from Hebrews 4:12, it must be emphasized that the “word” is not the Bible itself, but simply the LOGOS. The Logos is the creative energy of spirit, or Christ, which manifests will (as opposed to desire), Wisdom (as opposed to error), and action (as opposed to unconscious action). These positive influences on the mind is what exposes the division, or partition, of the spirit from the soul. The soul of man, or carnal mind, is at enmity with God, until it is perfected. The coming of the man Jesus symbolizes the awakening of the soul to these positive influences, and therefore, there is for a time a great division and strife that is stirred up between soul and spirit. Paul explains this sort of war that is not against flesh and blood, but it is a war of the rulers within in our mind.

Now back to Jesus’ statement in Luke. The “house” he is referring to contains the mind, which includes the potential of the LOGOS personified through you. Notice how the author of Hebrews states that this division between soul (the lower mind containing your intellect, emotions, and senses) and spirit (or higher mind combined with the Holy Spirit) is caused by discerning of “thoughts” and “intents” of the heart. “Heart” here is another word for the greater mind, both its intellectual and spiritual or intuitional-wisdom-love nature. It is not until the spiritual ego, or “the thinker” that you are, turns its focus inwards to the still small voice that the division between soul and spirit begins its maturity towards unity in the divine marriage of soul and spirit. But at first there is always division, just as Jesus had to clean house in the temple when he had to flog away all the money changers that defiled the temple (or mind) itself.

Another scripture which brings clarity here is Jesus’ statement on the original condition of the mind, BEFORE it’s division between soul and spirit:

“But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this cause a man (mind) shall leave his father and mother (the parents of the desire mind which seeks external world knowledge) and cleave to his wife (the emotion-nature of intuition/Holy Spirit), and shall become one flesh” (Mark 10:6).

Now we must go back a few verses before Jesus talks about division in Luke chapter 12. Let’s read 12:49, which states:

“I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?”

This fire is symbolic of spirit and love and truth. It is the fire (Holy Spirit) that “divides” because its essential wisdom dispels the ignorance of the lower mind which derives its truth from external sense reality instead of the higher spiritual realities. The process of destroying ignorance can seem very divisive within ourselves as we have to let go of certain false narratives and reclaim the truth. The arrival of Jesus signifies this beginning in the mind, and at first it is divisive, because the individual thinker, the spiritual ego, or mind, begins to identify not with the soul, but with spirit, and thereby realizes the soul needs to be disciplined with the love and wisdom nature, so that it can be raised into the higher mind.

Remember, the first man (Adam after the fall) is earthy. Earth being a symbol for the soul (intellect, emotion, and physical sensation). The second Adam is a spiritual being, the potential Christ now fully manifested in the higher mind, who has united his lower nature with his spiritual nature.

What is Christ? What is Man?

When one reads the New Testament, one has to understand what he or she is reading. If he or she believes they are reading history, then he or she will only learn about Christ. If he or she understands they are reading about themselves, as the expression of the living WORD, then he or she is on the path to KNOW Christ. The Apostle Paul makes it clear: “…Christ in you, your hope of glory.” All scripture points us to the inner Christ we all have the potential to express. Within that journey is the “mystery” that Paul is instructing us to partake of.

One who wishes to understand the mystery should not ask what is Christ without first asking, what is man.

And what is man?

Man is MIND. Man is mind, and mind is man. In other words, man is “a thinker.” The Psalmist gives us this revelation when he states:

“Whatsoever a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). That which a man thinks, he is, and becomes.

The man of higher thought is of a spiritual nature, and the man who thinks lower thought is of a soul nature. But everything that a man is stems from the “thinker” and is expressed through the QUALITY of his or her thought. This quality of thought is not produced just by the intellect, but rather the combination or union of intellect with intuition (the Holy Spirit).

Paul provides further clarification:

And be ye renewed in the spirit of your MIND; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:23-24).

Renew the mind how? Renew it from that of the lower nature (soul) to your higher nature (spiritual mind), all within the realm of thought and the QUALITY of it’s expression. The quality an accuracy of our thoughts become especially acute when the intellect is in union with the intuition of love and wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit. Then the ignorance of the external world will be revealed, and the truth of the higher realities revealed.

Some further scriptural thought on man, mind, and the true individuality, the THINKER

For what reason does Genesis state that God sent the flood on the earth? And for what reason did God spare Noah and his family? You guessed it! It had to do with wrong thought!

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Esoterically, this means that God allegorically baptized the earth (lower nature / soul). It is an allegory of God baptizing the lower mind, to cleanse it. This is what the ritual of baptism symbolizes: the washing of the mind in the WORD, even Christ (the perfected ideal mind), within man. The concept infers the cleansing of the flesh, flesh being the carnal mind (soul) of man which thinks such thoughts which stem from envy, lust, greed, pride, selfishness, arrogance, etc. These are all products of one culprit: the desire mind, the serpent which caused the so called “fall of man.” A better expression would be, “fall of mind!” The larger symbolism in the story of Noah is spirit cleansing the earth (soul) of evil thought.

Noah escaped the flood because he didn’t “think” like his fellow evil doers. Noah is the true individuality, the thinker, that raised his thoughts above the highest mountain top into heaven, the upper firmament the mind, which contains the waters above (Gen. 1:7), which are of truth (Christ addressed himself as this water of truth which enables one to never thirst again to the woman at the well).

Noah, the individuality, or I AM nature (the spiritual mind), then planted a vineyard (remember Christ is the vine, and we are the branches). From Noah and his family, mankind came forth upon the earth. In other words, the branches of the earth (soul) came forth. The branches are of the lower nature, but if they abide in Christ, they will produce fruit. Those do not abide in Christ, will be burned up (extinguished).

This is why Ezekiel 14:14 states that Noah was righteous enough to save himself, along with Job and Daniel who also could do so Why? If we think of them as literal people, it would make now sense. But because they are symbolic of the true individuality, the thinker, we understand we have the choice through will (the opposite of desire) to raise the soul by the spirit.

Conclusion

We started with Jesus’ statement about bringing division between the soul and spirit within the “house.” We discussed the importance of where our “thoughts” are directed, or drawn to within the house. Do they cater to the whims of desire, through the soul and external world, or earth? Or do we use will to go within and let the Holy Spirit do its work?

I want to explain this concept one more way in case any confusion still resides. I used the term “individuality” throughout the article. This can be confusing. The individuality I am speaking of is the same “I AM” aspect of being that God says will deliver Israel from Egypt (the lower mind).

The difference between the individuality and the soul is this: the soul is the “I AM me” feeling you have. Noticed how I (originally explained by Blavatsky) attached the “me” to the I AM. This “me” is your lower nature, or soul, that is attached to the individuality which consciousness has produced through it’s dual manifestation. The soul is… (insert your name and social conditioning and heredity, etc). Remember from earlier articles that when consciousness manifests, through any body or vehicle, its expression is dual. That is why we have a higher mind and a lower mind. This “me” aspect, the lower, is all the sensations, emotions, and thoughts one can have expressed through the lower mind (which encompasses expression in your physical brain and body). When the individuality, or the thinker, uses will to uplift his or her thoughts, such as compassion, joy, contentment, selflessness, etc., the individuality begins to associate itself with the higher mind, and the strong feeling of “me” that you have begins to drop away. This is why John the Baptist (the purified moral nature) stated, “I must decrease so that He can increase.” Instead of “me” vs “other” you develop an attitude of unity with others, and express that thought and emotion through acts of virtue. This doesn’t mean the “me” vanishes, but it becomes less important, and your attitude begins to shift towards a sort of unity with everything. Judgments and strong egoic opinions or dogmatic beliefs begin to become less and less important as intuition unites with your intellect and you truly begin to understand the cause and effect behind the external world with all it’s ills. It doesn’t mean you forget or ignore it, but you becomes less identified with it, personally, and more identified with the part of you that is truly immortal and is the real, greater aspect of the self. This allows you see the true problems behind the insanity of the world and can give you true solutions and insight into how to deal with problems or ills that plague our world or even your own life.

Why must we go within? Because the total mind (not just the intellect) is there, and the more inward we go, the more we can explore the true mind. Many today think the mind is created in the physical brain. This is a great problem. Consciousness only expresses a very limited portion of itself through the organ we call the physical brain and body. It does not originate there, and therefore what the physical senses interpret for us through the brain, we cannot trust. It is but a tiny fraction of mind, or man. In order to gain wisdom, we must allow access to portions of the mind that draw spiritual knowledge into the soul. Through this process the Christ is also raised in the soul.

I will discuss this more in future articles with more scripture. For now, blessings!

The Nature of God

June 18, 2020 by Anny Vos 40 Comments

During the last seven years or so I already wrote two articles about God, each coming from a different viewpoint. I also gave a comment about this subject to Joshua’s article What is God to you? of May 6^th, 2018, which approached the subject from another viewpoint again, but not all comments are read, let alone remembered, by everyone. That is why I decided to quote it in this article, with a few small additions.

“I believe that there is no one definition to define God. If I had to choose a word it would be Everything. There just is not anything that is not God manifesting on one of the multitudinous vibrationary frequencies. In the lowest frequencies that would be without much, if any, conscious awareness, but still a manifestation of God. We cannot get away from God however we might try as we are a part of God. In our case with a very much diminished awareness as we put on a blindfold so to speak before we entered into this physical body in order to have certain experiences.

What fun is playing a game if you know all the best possibilities and the answers to all the questions already? The fun is in finding out and inventing new possibilities for ourselves. We do have all the potentials of God in us, even though they have not all been activated yet.

I think you can see us (humans, animals, plants, minerals, cells, atoms, quanta, planets, stars, galaxies, universes a.s.o.) as points of focus of attention for God. Each of us is a cell or an atom in a greater universe and is a universe to smaller entities. God as the highest entity of all is encompassing all of us and perceiving and experiencing through us. As we are experiencing through our organs and cells and atoms and maybe are ‘god’ to them.

There is no God that is separate from us but when you consider us to be the focal points in the feet of God (using the metaphor of a human body), as we live in the lowest and densest frequency vibrations, and the focal point that encompasses all is the brain, you can also imagine communication between the feet and the brain in order to make them function.

So while there is no God outside us because we are in God and God is in us, we still may want to experience communication and therefore pretend that God is outside of us.

The fact is that we cannot possibly understand how things are in Reality with a capital R as long as we are still wearing this blindfold. We are waking up though because we are now at least aware of the fact that we are wearing a blindfold and that this world is nothing but an illusion.

So maybe we should stop arguing about what really happened in whatever time and whatever place, because none of that is real anyway, except the Love and Conscious Awareness we gained from whatever happened in the world we created.”

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Today I want to focus first and foremost on the unconditional love and unity of God, which I also already mentioned many times in my articles and comments but which was explained so much more beautifully and completely by rabbi Zvi Ish-Shalom in the video of which you find the link here, and which I advise you to watch first, before reading the rest of this article:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eudhz0ylnW4

Personally I enjoyed this video very much, not only because it addressed so many things that I knew already, and had actually written about often as well because Hebrew numerology is at the basis of almost all my articles, but because there were so many new aspects as well.

I did not discover this meaning of the Name YHWH because of any Bible texts in the way Zvi described but very prosaically by just doing the math. The fact that the numerical value of YHWH, 26, equals 13 + 13 (echad + ahava) was immediately obvious to me, maybe because thirteen has always been my favorite number since I had a Near Death experience at the age of thirteen, in which I experienced this unconditional love myself. A love of a frequency that is far too high to be experienced as long as we still reside in our physical bodies. That is why I made this theme to the centre of attention of many of my articles.

Slowly it started to occur to me though that this principle is not only the Name of God, and the nature of His /Her/ It’s being but also of ours as we (everything from quarks to universes and beyond), is an expression of God’s being. God is experiencing Himself (to keep it short) through all of us, as we are all sparks of the Fire that is God, another Name, who temporarily descended into the so-called world of matter (which is described as a dream or deep sleep, tardema, in Genesis) in order to gain conscious awareness there by also experiencing the opposite of light, of love etc. in order to learn in this way what these and all other concepts really mean. All this has taken us a very long ‘time’ (within the concept of space and time), and many lives (within the concept of reincarnation) in order to come to the point where we finally recognize this process for what it is, and the fact that the essence of God is in effect our essence also.

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So our task in this life on earth and in duality is to learn to express this essence of our being, this unconditional love and also this unity (in diversity) in our own daily lives.

It means also to recognize and acknowledge that all major world religions in their essence are all about the same thing: unconditional love and unity in diversity, and that there is no one religion that solely is in possession of the truth whereas all others somehow got it wrong. And it means that we will have to cooperate with each other to reach this goal together. In a practical sense of course by practicing this unconditional love wherever we can. And by discarding automatic distrust of everyone who looks differently, or is of another race, country or religion, in order to reach this unity in diversity together.

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I am not going to explain every detail of Zvi’s video – he did that better than I ever could – but I do want to focus on one or two of the details.

Elohim, numerical value 86, equals ha teva, (the) nature, with also a numerical value of 86. The formless is the form. Spirit, the formless, has another, higher, vibrational frequency than matter, the form. So by entering the ‘mater’ial world in order to have experiences there in the form of all (life) forms in it God is lowering His vibration.

Mater is the Latin word for mother, so matter is mother stuff. Our material world is the feminine / mother side of God, and therefore Goddess or Divine Mother, of which we in our incarnated self are a part. So if you want to see God: look in the mirror, and remember with what purpose you came to this world: to bring unconditional love and unity in diversity back to her, as that is the phase we now have reached in our cycle of development.

The title of this article is the Nature of God, and of course I meant something like the essence of God with this term. But nature as ha teva, in the literal sense now proves to be also an aspect, a side, of God. And what a beautiful aspect it is.

With the term ha teva I was immediately reminded of Haganat ha teva, the society for the protection of nature in Israel, which used to organize all sorts of beautiful trips into nature during the time that I lived there during the last century. Maybe they still do. I was also reminded again of the beautiful flowers in spring, and the beauty of the deserts – the Negev, where my husband used to live for a few years before we met, and the Sinai – among other things. There nature shows itself in a most majestic way and can really be experienced as divine. Of course the Sinai belongs to Egypt again these days but when I lived in Israel it still belonged to Israel and it was not yet spoilt with asphalt roads and tourist accommodations, as so many areas of nature are these days. I went there for an eight-day trip with a group of people from our village, under the guidance of Haganat ha teva, in May 1973 and never forgot the experience. I did get some understanding for the grumbling of the people of Israel who had to track through it for forty years though. I would probably have started to grumble much sooner than they did for beautiful though the desert may be, it is also barren and not for the life of me would I have wanted to wander through there for such a long time.

Mother Nature (God) shows both a beautiful and majestic side and a grim one in regions like deserts and mountains and (stormy) seas but also a soft and loving one in flowers, budding and flowering trees and young living beings and the like. The nature of the Mother really is awe-inspiring and inviting unconditional love.

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My desert experience in 1973 was awe-inspiring but so was the experience of the Yom Kippur war half a year later. As our Christian village had been started in order for Christians to be solidary with the Jewish people after almost 2000 years of discrimination, persecution and murder of Jews by Christians, this village was intentioned to be non-missionary and the purpose originally was just to assist the – in the beginning still young – state of Israel by getting to know the people – all the peoples – and by starting and assisting enterprises that would support the economy. We would have to learn to listen to the Jews for a change instead of foisting our religious views upon them. It also meant to be solidary with the Jewish people in the case of an attack by other countries. So running away was not an option when this war suddenly came upon us. This placed us in a very special position in which we had to adjust to the situation as it was – we were very near the northern front – and somehow that put us in some sort of bubble in which we lost all fear and experienced the Presence of God very clearly in a way I cannot really describe. It was definitely Love.

There were miracles too, one of which I already mentioned in my article about miracles, but here is another one. Of course we were very much focused on the news and I remember one occasion where I was listening very intently to the radio in order to find out where the attacking forces were exactly, and taking it all in, until I suddenly realized that I was listening to a Hebrew broadcast, and I did not know any Hebrew to speak of yet. Up till then there had been no time to attend any Hebrew classes as there was too much work to be done. As soon as I realized that the broadcast was all in Hebrew, it became unintelligible to me. Sort of like Peter sinking into the water of the Lake of Tiberias as soon as he realized what he was doing by stepping out of the boat in order to walk to Jesus over the water.

Another aspect of that war was the fact that it had meant so much to the people around us that all of us had stayed with them during that war, as one of the survivors of the concentration camps of the Second World War told us when we visited them later after the war. We had not been able to do anything at all to help anybody during that time but purely the fact that we were there had been of some comfort to them. It gave them a feeling of not being deserted by everyone in their hour of greatest danger again.

Something comparable happened many years later in Vietnam, in 2008, when we were there to celebrate the wedding of our second son to a Vietnamese girl. One of the uncles of my daughter in law had been with the Vietcong during the Vietnam war and had been terribly wounded; he had lost an arm and an eye during that time and had many internal wounds as well. Of course this had a great impact on his attitude towards people coming from western countries. Since the end of that war in 1975, when my son was not even born yet, he had refused to meet any person from the west but now he was more or less forced to meet with us. He took a seat at the table right across from our seats and immediately wanted to know what we thought about the fact that our son had just married a Vietnamese girl. He obviously expected that we would not really welcome a Vietnamese daughter in law but was pleasantly surprised that we did not show any objections to the marriage. And then he pointed at our youngest son, who sat beside us, and asked what we would think of it when he too would want to marry a Vietnamese girl (and indeed, in the few days we had been in Vietnam he had already managed to fall in love with one and he is married to her now!). We told him that that would be perfectly fine with us and with that statement a huge weight of distrust and maybe even hatred seemed to fall off him and he became a changed person, totally accepting us. We did not do anything, we only were there in a positive state of being and that made all the difference.

Being is the essence of what it is all about, being unconditional love and being willing to be part of a unity in diversity.

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This interlude about the second meaning of the nature of God and what followed sort of interrupted my explanation about the term Elohim but there is a second form of Elohim, which Zvi did not mention within the context of his presentation.

The first form of Elohim means God – or really Gods because it is a plural form – but these Gods are a unity and act as one, which becomes clear in the form of the verbs which are used, that is, the singular form. We find that to begin with in the creation story where already in the first sentence it is written Bereshit bara Elohim et ha shamayim we et ha arets: In the beginning created Elohim the heavens and the earth. The verb created, bara, is singular. And so are the verbs used in the following verses.

However, there are also other Elohim; gods which are idols. They each point in a different way and they create chaos instead of order, hatred instead of love. In their case an accompanying verb is in plural, which I have however never seen explained anywhere by anyone.

An example of these idols can be found in the time that the people of Israel are asking Aaron to make gods for them in order to lead them to the Promised Land because Moses took a long time to return to the people from the top of the mountain where he received the Ten Words from God. In Exodus 32:1 it is written: Ase lanu Elohim asher yeelchu lefanenu, Make gods for us that will go before us.

In that sentence the plural form yeelchu – they will go – was used, so they really asked for gods who would lead them back to slavery because that is the only destination such gods can lead us to.

That is also a lesson for us because the reason why the people asked for such gods must have been that they did not have enough trust in the God who had delivered them from Mitsrayim, the world of duality, the world of slavery. They had not expected that the journey to a Promised Land would be a journey through a desert, through challenges and uncertainties, a journey during which they would have to learn to take decisions themselves again, and to face an uncertain future for the time being. They had not expected that the journey would take a long time, ‘forty’ years. Forty is the character Mem, which as a word means mayim, water, and as such also is a symbol for ego and emotions. They would have to learn to deal with all that in the desert during those ‘forty’ years.

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Doesn’t that sound familiar to us in the circumstances we are in now? It has been more than clear that the actions of humanity have taken the earth to the cutting edge of where she can go and now we face a very uncertain future if we do not turn around immediately and start behaving in a very different fashion, towards the earth, towards all creatures that inhabit the earth and also towards ourselves so that we finally will be able to face a future again in which unconditional love reigns over all and where we all will have become a unity in diversity which lives together as one and which expresses all the qualities of the God we could never find when we were looking in all the wrong places and going into all the wrong directions.

This journey may lead us over difficult roads, which at times seem unsurmountable. But we have to go this road if we want to reach the Promised Land, Kana’an, which has the numerical value of 190, whereas the numerical value of Egypt, Mitsrayim, the land of slavery, is 380. Symbolically this translates as the Promised Land being the world of oneness, of unity in diversity, as opposed to the slavery of Egypt in the world of duality.

The way out of this world of slavery and through the desert of uncertainty is shown to us by Jesus. No, not the person who was born some 2000 years ago, who came to deliver us from our sins, who was The Son of God. That has become the doctrine of Christianity, a faulty doctrine in my view. I believe that Jesus was and is A Son of God and at that time came to show us that we are as well. He came to show us the way how to accomplish what he accomplished.

Jesus in the Bible is a symbol and a process; a way back to unconditional love and unity in diversity and a road which we will have to go ourselves. Nobody else can do it for us. Jesus the person may have been the one who came to show all of us this way. A way which has nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion as such, although of course the followers of each of those religions are invited to walk this road as well.

The Hebrew name of Jesus is Yeshua, and yeshua is a word as well. It means help, rescue, salvation. Our way to salvation is the way of the cross, the crucifixion of the ego and the birth of the Christ Consciousness after that, which I described extensively in the articles in the links below:

http://www.spiritofthescripture.com/id3124-an-esoteric-interpretation-of-the-crucifixion-of-jesus.html

http://www.spiritofthescripture.com/id3450-the-birth-of-the-christ.html

The Crucifixion of the Ego

There remains one other image of God to explain and that image is that of God as the Father. My view on that can be found in my article The Other Son , which shows God as an unconditionally loving Father who accepts all His children in all of their diversity.

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For those of you who want to get a complete overview of how I have come to view the concept of God I provide you here with the links to the two previous articles I wrote about this concept.

Does God exist? Is there consciousness outside of the body, or life after death?

What if the purpose of Creation is the Evolution of God?

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I invite each of you to seriously consider what I presented you with in all this material and to comment on it if you feel like that. I hope to be able to reply to your comments but the fact of the matter – and the reason why I have not been writing any articles at all during the last eighteen (18! The number of chai, life) months is that I have been and still am ill, and that writing anything at all takes a lot of energy, of which I still have preciously little these days. Besides that my eldest son has been diagnosed with incurable cancer in 2018 and our youngest suddenly became ill a few days ago with symptoms that may point to the corona virus. Today he was finally tested but the result of the test he will not get for another two days. His wife is having a very difficult pregnancy and is not able to do anything herself most of the time. Our grandson has immediately been put into quarantine again and spends a lot of the time at our house, while my husband is helping out at theirs as well. So when my son will prove to be infected, my husband and I will probably be as well. And what that means to me in my condition is anyone’s guess. But it certainly made me go much deeper in writing this article.

The need of the present circumstances of the world during this hectic period and our own condition suddenly urged me to write this article and gave me the inspiration and the strength for it as it obviously is something we have to become aware of right now.

I hope to be able to reply to your comments but I cannot guarantee that I will be physically up to it so if you do not hear from me, you now know the reason.

Unconditional love and unity in diversity really is the centre that everything revolves around. It is the nature of God. It is the task for all of us. And it is the essence of our being. Jesus already told us so when he told us that we are gods.

The Significance of Jesus’ First Miracle at Cana

January 20, 2020 by Joshua Tilghman 12 Comments

At first it might seem a little strange…

The Gospel writer of John chose to unveil Jesus’ power of miracles at a wedding. This is no coincidence. The writer is using the narrative technique of foreshadowing. But in this case, rather than foreshadowing an event, it’s foreshadowing the esoteric symbolism of Jesus and what Jesus is.

In ancient scriptures, initiations, marriages, and sacred ceremonies symbolized something inwardly. If you focus on Jesus attending a literal marriage and turning literal water into wine, then you’ve missed the bigger picture and wisdom related through the Gospel narrative. It’s funny how the human mind can work; many religious authorities abhor alcohol, and yet they have to acknowledge that a literal reading shows Jesus turning enough water into wine to get dozens of people plastered! Some will try and sidestep the issue of God himself being responsible for something so wrong by saying the wine way back then was about 1/7 the strength of today. Regardless of whether that is true or not misses the point! Jesus wasn’t making the first equivalent of O’douls. No one in scripture actually DRINKS wine. Wine is a powerful symbol.

But I digress. If you read my last blog post on decoding the symbols in Genesis chapter one, then you’ll be ready for this one. Except this miracle is symbolic of actually fulfilling the potential within the human / temple blueprint we broke down in every verse of Genesis chapter one. I recommend reading that first HERE to understand this post better if you haven’t already. Now let’s jump into today’s content.

I’ve written about this subject before on the blog, but today’s post will go a little deeper. Wine is a symbol of the effects of spirit. More importantly, the effect that the higher spiritual Self has on the lower nature when consciousness expands its expression in our bodies. It can be described as intoxicating. Awareness expands, and the higher nature feels joyful, peace and contentment as wisdom and love is directly experienced. At the same rate, it can be said that the lower nature becomes dulled, and takes a back seat. (Funny how things in the natural world directly reflect higher spiritual realities!).

The Bhagavad-Gita states, “The wise man should raise the self by the Self; let him not suffer the Self to be lowered; for Self is the friend of self, and in like manner, self is it’s own enemy.” The lower self does not understand itself, but the higher Self does. The story here with Jesus at Cana is speaking the same wisdom. Jesus is the Self. As we’ll see, the water pots resemble all aspects of our natures, from the lower to the higher. The goal is that the lower self must be raised by the permanent Self, so that there is a union of the two. A marriage. And Jesus is at the marriage performing a miracle because through this miracle he makes the marriage of the two selves happen.

As I mentioned in a former post years ago, Jesus’ mother symbolizes the divine feminine. This is the receptive aspect of spirit. Seen as a mother symbol, it births and directs the evolution of human consciousness by intuition. In the natural world, loving mothers will push their children towards bettering themselves and teach them many important things about life through tender care and devotion. Jesus’ mother symbolizes this directing aspect of consciousness’s evolution at the wedding. Jesus tells her his hour is not yet come when she demands that people at the wedding do what Jesus (the higher Self principle) tells them. In other words, be obedient. And although Jesus states his hour is not yet come, he performs the miracle anyway. Can a child / man / truly resist the demanding nature of their mothers / spouses? (Maybe for a time:)

Jesus then orders them to bring six water pots and fill them to the brim with water. The six water pots symbolize all of our vehicles of conscious expression, from the physical to the spiritual. The six water pots also symbolize the six days of creation we looked at in Genesis chapter one from our last post. Remember those days show the blueprint of man’s soul? Those six days show the creation of each aspect of man’s soul. Jesus wants all of the water pots of stone filled. Each stone pot symbolizes the physical-etheric, emotional, lower mental, causal [upper mental], and buddic [Holy Spirit]. (Don’t let the above words be confusing. It’s just a way of expressing through language different aspects of conscious expression in the human temple. Read my post on Genesis chapter one to understand more). The water will be changed to wine when the Self (Jesus) has attained the resurrection within the soul, symbolized by the gift of the spirit that Christ sends. The process is symbolic of the natural man beings changed to the spiritual man. Jesus’ hour had not come yet because the narrative of John must show all that Jesus would do before the final resurrection, but the marriage miracle at Cana foreshadows the resurrecting power of the Self when the lower and higher union is consummated. And that is why Jesus’ first miracle (foreshadowing his power) must be told at a wedding! Remember, St. Paul tells us he’s never addressing literal men, women, and marriages. He is speaking about the bigger mystery (spiritual truth) of Christ (the true Self) and the Church (the permanent aspect of your soul within the Self).

The above is a very simplistic breakdown of the esoteric meaning within the story. But what is it saying on a deeper level? How can we make it somewhat practical to us today? I’ll share some of my own personal thoughts and opinions below which I think scriptures hint at, but you’ll have to discover for yourself.

God rests on the seventh day when the blueprint for man is completed. The sixth day, when man’s soul had all the ingredients needed (down to the astral and physical nature) to evolve with self-experiential knowledge integrated through the arena of life, God rests because it is in the stillness of God’s rest that we rest. In other words, our turning away from nagging desires of the lower nature gives way to the operation of the higher Self more fully expressing itself as rest, stillness, and peace through uplifting our lower nature. Why do we have these physical natures if we are not suppose to succumb to the illusory trap it conceals consciousness in?

I like to think of it as such: physical life is a beautiful thing. Consciousness discovers itself physically in ways in which other expressions of consciousness in higher realities could not. Some of the experiences are quite painful. Some joyful. But when we learn to direct the lower nature through correct aspirations, then the soul records a greater sense of Knowing the difference. It takes back the experiences from physical existence and adds them to the permanent causal self (the Church), symbolized also by the ark of the Covenant and Noah’s ark in the Old Testament. (Interestingly Noah also makes wine after the Ark, humanity’s causal body, is elevated above the highest mountain top). As consciousness evolves it becomes a more complex creator, and you are becoming an individualized creator. 2 Timothy states we will one day rule with Christ. Revelations mentions that those who overcome will rule nations. Nations are symbolic of qualities within the soul, both the higher and lower qualities. In other words, our destinies are to be rulers with Christ (the Self) and masters of our own vehicles of consciousness (in matter) by becoming creators in the image of God. Personally I believe we will become creators in higher realities. But it begins on earth. The meek shall inherit the earth. In other words, the meek shall inherit the wisdom the soul has acquired through this physical existence and be able to apply it later in a way that will be expressed through greater wisdom and love, as a creator. It is my personal belief that while we have some free will in this physical existence, the lessons we learn here, when directed by the higher Self, will allow us to have greater free will in higher realities. And the evolution of consciousness continues as a creator.

You are already a creator. You may have children, and you learn about yourself through raising them. You are creators in many other ways too. Your job, your household, your hobbies, etc. In a sense, life is about becoming a more responsible creator, as in the true image of God.

I talk about inner reflection and meditation on this site so much because I personally believe it is the method of accumulating wisdom to understand ourselves through our lessons in physical existence. If we don’t grasp physical existence, we aren’t ready yet to create in higher realities. Meditation helps us to shut out the noise of limited physical existence and better hear the noise of the Self through higher realities. Intuition then guides intelligence in new creative ways based on the truths in these higher realities, guided by the principles of love and wisdom. The marriage at Cana is the proper integration with love and wisdom of the Holy Spirit within the individualized permanent Self on the higher metal plane. Being still and knowing God has a profound effect on the psyche, through accumulated time of practice, and is the method for expanding conscious awareness.

I hope this post spoke something of meaning to you. Blessings!

The Bible’s Greatest Message (A Short Post)

August 16, 2019 by Joshua Tilghman 21 Comments

Below I am going to give a short summary of manifesting your true nature with a string of individual scriptures, in the form of a poem. If you meditate on each stanza a few moments, a picture will begin to unfold transcending religious ideas. Many of you here already know, breathe and live this message. To others it may be a new way of seeing God’s story to mankind. Even though I didn’t provide where each verse is in the Bible, know that they come from the KJV.

After finishing, feel free to add other scriptures in the comments that come to mind and complete the theme! And please share what you see the theme to be – I’ve purposely matched scriptures to individual stanzas. I’d love to see your poetic thoughts. Enjoy!

Inner Silence

“…the Lamb Slain from the foundation of the world.”

“And God said, let there be light, and there was light.”

“I am the light of the world, and the truth shall set you free.”

“…and that life was the light of men.”

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

“The kingdom of God is within you.”

“If thine eye be single, thy body will be full of light.”

“Take no thought for the morrow.”

“…whoever loses their life for my sake will gain it.”

“Be still and know that I am God.”

“Ye are the temple made without hands.”

“…Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. “…greater is he that is within…”

“Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost.”

“The Lord in his holy temple, all the earth keep silence before him.”

“Christ in you, your hope of glory.”

“On that day you will realize…you are in me, and I in you.”

——————————————————————————————

As a side note, for anyone who didn’t know, Paul Young and myself’s 2nd and 3rd videos are up on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqUNWylXdpY&t=2496s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orLzlRB6pmg&t=710s

Cheers.

Who, or what, is your God? And how do you Worship?

August 10, 2019 by Joshua Tilghman 25 Comments

Defining God… at some point, most of us are guilty. What begins as a seemingly noble attempt to answer one of life’s greatest mysteries, usually leads to prejudice, judgement, separation, condemnation, war, and even death. At least, history bears that record. Perhaps this is why so many sages–spanning all the great spiritual traditions of the world–tell us that defining God is an attempt at futility. Their wisdom proclaims that attempting to do so, even by name, places boundaries and limitations to an ineffable source. Thus, any attempt to define God is an act of self-deception. Why? Because defining God with our thoughts and feelings creates God in OUR image. The Old Testament calls this idolatry, which is transgression of the first commandment. [Read more…] about Who, or what, is your God? And how do you Worship?

The Coming Lord (Christ) Within You!

June 24, 2019 by Joshua Tilghman 18 Comments

Today I want to discuss a King James rendition of an interesting scripture from the Old Testament and tie it into other Old Testament and New Testament scriptures which I think you’ll find fascinating.

Continuing from our last blog post, we are exploring the gist of, as Paul said, Christ in you, you’re hope of glory. Remember, we discussed the real reason women are to be silent in the church: it’s every person, not just women as all people are the bridegroom of the Christ, and thus, all humanity is considered “women” here through the allegorical interpretation. The true mystery is that Jesus and Paul, through allegory, were describing Christ and the Church, not literal men and women. Spiritual meat only shines through when we understand the allegorical nature of scripture (Gal. 4:24, Proverbs 1:6, and Psalms 78:2). [Read more…] about The Coming Lord (Christ) Within You!

The Spirit of the Scripture

Unveiling the Bible

Awakening

Baptism in the River Jordan and Coming Upon the Other Side

Biblical Perspective on Cosmic Jesus, Law and Cellular Ascension

The Developing Intellect in Biblical Symbolism: Part 2

The Mystery of Gethsemane: Grasping the Importance of Meditation

Resurrecting Biblical Terms

Comparing Prometheus and Biblical Characters Continued…

The Serpent

More on the Serpent

Lucifer

Jesus, Peter, and the Fish: Esoteric Biblical Psychology 101

Fish of the Sea and Lakes

Peter and the Fish

Fish as a symbol of the Old Testament

Simon son of Bar Jonah

Why Jesus said He Came to Bring Division

What is Christ? What is Man?

Some further scriptural thought on man, mind, and the true individuality, the THINKER

Conclusion

The Nature of God

The Significance of Jesus’ First Miracle at Cana

The Bible’s Greatest Message (A Short Post)

Inner Silence

Who, or what, is your God? And how do you Worship?

The Coming Lord (Christ) Within You!

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Awakening

The Serpent

More on the Serpent

Lucifer

Fish of the Sea and Lakes

Peter and the Fish

Fish as a symbol of the Old Testament

Simon son of Bar Jonah

What is Christ? What is Man?

Some further scriptural thought on man, mind, and the true individuality, the THINKER

Conclusion

Inner Silence

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